[Neil8888]

I have a shipment of mini 1cm marimo moss balls coming in—haven't yet been introduced to any aquariums. Does anyone know whether I could quarantine these in a glass jar to detect zebra mussels? Would the potentially invisible eggs or tiny offspring eventually grow big enough that I could tell whether the moss balls are infested? How long would that take? I haven't been able to find anything about lifespan/size online.

Obviously the safest and easiest thing is to throw them away—just trying to avoid this if possible.

 

[Plinkploop]

I'd air on the side of caution and destroy them I think you're supposed to bleach them out or something. I'm not sure if the problem was ever fixed but a quick check into that might tell you something. Good luck!

 

[somewhatshocked]

Your safest best is to destroy them.

But since you're already receiving them, there's little harm in a quarantine of several months for observation. Then if you can find anything, destroy it all. I'd maybe even go 6 months just to see what happens. If nothing, they'd possibly be fine. Be sure there's no cross-contamination, don't use a container you aren't comfortable tossing, no nets you're going to reuse quickly or anything like that.

They can live about a decade and grow, on average, a little more than a centimeter a year. So you'd be able to find them after several months.