Mops, how long to bring one to life?

In my war against "The Slime" I had to kill my cory's several year old mop . Wash.. bleach.. boil (I considered fire but didn't go that far). So their mop is stone dead. I have one in a pleco/rainbow tank that spent months in a puffer tank and only now begins to look like it is coming on line (plecos are sucking on it occasionally).
Having now realized that mops are like heaters/filters/etc where you should always have a hot spare ready to go I just started 2 new mops. After a few more boils and rinses to get rid of the chlorine smell I will begin to age in the cory mop again. Then make a few more mops so I will have hot spares aging in (everyone loves mops).

How long does it take to bring one to life? 6 months? The old cory mop fed a ton of cories (there were over 30 in it after I shook it out and put it in a pail.). So I need live mops coated in bio film. I did get many "stings" from the sterbs in the mop so either they were not pumping out venom or I'm immune as all I got were some small holes in fingers and hand.

My rainbows are very interested in the new mop in their tank but there is no biofilm to feed any young from eggs they may lay in there. I used the mop to clean the brown and green algae off the tank cover before pitching it in the tank in a hope to jump start it.

Is there a way to fast start a mop?

This was my best guess as to where to put this thread.

 

This is a new one for me. What are mops and how do you use them? What are they for? Maybe a food factory for fry?

 

They look like a mop head. You make them out or acrylic yarn.
You buy the yarn and than just wrap it in a loop of the size you want again and again and again and.. Once it is huge or you have used the whole yarn you tie it in the center and cut the yarn on the other end.
Then you boil it just to make sure, then you hang it in your tank.
The mop starts out as shelter/hiding right off the bat. Once it comes to life it is a huge pile of biofilm for young fish to eat, well and older fish like the film too.

Some fish like rainbows like to breed in mops, they swim in and dump their eggs, then next fish swims in and fertilizes, then they forget about the eggs. If you want you can then move the mop to an empty tank. The biofilm feeds the young and gives them a place to hide. I do not bother with things like baby brine shrimp for my baby cories as they have the mop feeding them... well they HAD the mop feeding them.

These are mops


You can see a pleco sucking on the one that is coming to life. The new big green one on the left is fresh and dead (the rainbows are interested in it though).
The live one is not popular with the rainbows in this tank or the dwarf rainbows in the puffer tank. I suspect that is because I chose yarn that was a little more colorful and has blues and off greens in it instead of being the normal pine green.

Cory's new mop. Ignore the hoplo it is only in there because someone ate it's whiskers.

 

Interesting I thought they were mainly for breeding fish but I have learned something new here as well! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you for such a detailed answer. I am very tempted to make at least one and maybe if I do my black skirt and neon tetras will make use of it. About once a month my black skirts go into breeding mode but the eggs never last long enough to hatch. I have lots and lots of yarn. Would 100% cotton be best or will the acrylic work just as well?

 

Thank you for such a detailed answer. I am very tempted to make at least one and maybe if I do my black skirt and neon tetras will make use of it. About once a month my black skirts go into breeding mode but the eggs never last long enough to hatch. I have lots and lots of yarn. Would 100% cotton be best or will the acrylic work just as well?

Only acrylic. Cotton/wool/bamboo/angora/etc will degrade/rot. With a sweater we want natural, for a mop we want totally fake fiber. Think of it as an unusual plastic plant.