Some Marimo keepers may find, to their horror, that parts of their Marimo are disintegrating. So why does this happen?
If only a small part of Marimo falling apart:
1. The culprit might just be your Marimo's tankmates! Fishes such as goldfish, silverdollar and crayfish would chew on the Marimo as food, while many other playful fishes also enjoy pulling apart your Marimo just for the glory of Satan. So keep an eye or two on your aquarium community.
2. Strong water current may bash apart your Marimo. While it is good to keep your Marimo in flowing water, tsunami-like current is just a no-no.
3. Other conditions that might lead to disintegration include water's chemistry and temperature. If you find your Marimo to start falling apart after adding medicine/solution into the tank, stop usage or dilute your medicine/solution. High temperature may weaken your Marimo as well.
If your Marimo is collapsing like a house of cards:
1. Unfortunately, this might mean that the inner part of your Marimo has started rotting, which could be caused by many factors such as poor environment or negligence. Our condolences to you.
2. To keep your hope up, a severe disintegration might just be a normal propagation process if you can rule out the aforementioned factors/conditions i.e. rotting centre, playful/aggressive family members tankmates, poor environment/care, etc. Congrats to you as this is a natural process when Marimo divides into smaller parts to restart its growth cycle.
