The legendary Aussimo Balls

[Squiggle]

YAY! We're all going to be scientists :encouragement:

[fishmosy]

Firstly I'd like to thank Bluebolts for generously providing a sample from his aussimo. Thumbs up mate.

Ladies and gentlemen (cue drum roll) .......

The moment of truth has arrived.

I can say with certainty that aussimo balls are in fact real organisms, in no way synthetic, and are likely a freshwater algae species. This is confirmed by myself and my boss, who is a expert on marine seaweeds (algae).

I cannot say what genus or species it belongs to, but we are currently working on getting an I.D.

Here is the evidence.

Note the different lengths of each node or 'section', the branching shape, and the pores (200X zoom). Humans cannot create anything like this, and if they could, it would be far too expensive to have ended up as an item someone uses to scam with.

40X zoom

100X zoom

200X zoom

Please note: Do not share/post these pics elsewhere as I will consider it a breach of copyright. If people wish to see them, they should sign up to this great forum.

[honcho]

oooh thats freakin awsome..!

great job fishmossy..

it kinda looks like subwassertang under the microscope..!

[BlueBolts]

Thanks fishmosy, great that we finally got confirmation. Huge fan of the Aussimo Ball....growth rate is extremely slow, but perhaps with optimum conditions, it's growth rate will accelerate, as I have them in low light tanks.

Please do keep the one I send you.

Thanks again mate.

[mr_c265]

That's amazing! Glad there is a resolution to this saga. Used to be a guy on another forum that sold them, sadly he's been inactive for a while.

[Gbang]

Woohoo!!!!!!! This is by far one of the most exciting threads I've read in a long time!!!! Thank you fish mosy for such a wonderful analysis and great photos and thank you blue bolts for the sample.

I believe it is mandatory that fish mosy now take a photo of himself in the lab doing a Toyota ad jump :)

[Trav80]

Interesting. If they appear on the market again I might have to look at getting a couple :)

[BlueBolts]

I believe it is mandatory that fish mosy now take a photo of himself in the lab doing a Toyota ad jump :)

+1 ....Go on fishmosy ! TGIF too

[mr_c265]

I nearly forgot, Fishmosy, if you get an id, can you please let AQIS know, just in case some of the highly competent employees can't tell the difference between Marimo and native moss balls.

[Squiggle]

Wow, that's such amazing news, nice work Fishmosy :encouragement:

[CNgo2006]

I believe it is mandatory that fish mosy now take a photo of himself in the lab doing a Toyota ad jump :)

+2 fish mosy: OH WHAT A FEELING!

[Robert]

Great news, proved me and my high school microscope wrong.

[sajica]

I believe it is mandatory that fish mosy now take a photo of himself in the lab doing a Toyota ad jump :)

+1 ....Go on fishmosy ! TGIF too

+2 fish mosy: OH WHAT A FEELING!

+3I 3rd that notion.... All oppose? No one..The bill has passed. the tribe has spoken... Toyota jump damnit!

[tangfreak]

Great news were can we get them

[BlueBolts]

Great news were can we get them

Unfortunately, only the original founder knows its location....been bugging him to collect more, but it's further north of NSW, and he may only be heading up that way in April. :-(

Unless others know its location ?

[fishmosy]

Was that north of NSW i.e. Queensland border area..... or northern NSW?

[BlueBolts]

Was that north of NSW i.e. Queensland border area..... or northern NSW?

He never said.....have asked, but no reply.

[fishmosy]

Bugger. Hopefully he can get some more. This has inspired me to pay more attention to plants/algae when I'm looking for shrimp. Usually too focused on shrimp and fish!

[Aquathumb]

Wish we had a location! I was down at tambourine mountain / Cedar Creek today and over at O'Reilly's Rainforest a few weeks ago. I would LOVE to get a hold of one of these and start growing/propergating them so that all australian aquarists can enjoy them!

I understand him not disclosing the location tho... would hate to see there natural habitat decimated by greedy people.

[fishmosy]

Yeah I agree. As soon as sites get out, they tend to get plundered even before there is really any knowledge of population size and ability to recover from collection. Case in point, banggai cardinalfish.

Keep hassling him BB to collect a few more, and some water parameters at the collection site would be premium info. I'm especially interested to know what the water flow conditions are like. I suspect it would be quite quick given the morphology of the balls (compared to what I know from similar shaped marine algae).

[JohnH]

ooohh. I hope this stuff is collected and propagated in tanks for wider distribution.

[al4n]

so how much do these go for?

[fishmosy]

so how much do these go for?

If you can find someone who is willing to sell (you most likely won't), be prepared to pay whatever they ask. These haven't been on the market for at least 2 years, probably closer to 3. We are working on trying to get the guy who originally found these to collect some more, or pass on a location, so these can become available again.

Original price was $25 for 8-10 pieces 1-3cm in diameter plus postage.

[Kimbo]

I had heaps of these before, most now reside in Mr B.B's tanks :) I had them propogating quite nicely, I found they prefered extremley low - no light more than the high end fandagled tanks with co2 etc. I swapped a fair few out amongst the shrimp community and other aquarium keepers in Perth, but sadly lost mine (literally lost them - had them before move after move cant find them anywhere!) when I moved back home. I knew they werent synthetic as mine were mutliplying :P

[OzShrimp]

such an interesting topic on an intrigueing algae species :)

Just goes to show we still have plenty of our own treasures here in Aus :)