...I got up this morning to find my halimeda seems to have crashed. I have two plants of the big leaf type on seperate ends of my aquarium. They both looked to have died. The green in them broke down on the leaves into little specs. They seemed to be doing pretty good. One of them was showing continued growth, the other was in a higher current area but looked to be doing fine. I was dosing calcium a few times a week. Just seems odd. They were about 3 weeks old. I put them in a container with saltwater and calcium on my window's ledge in natural sunlight after I removed them from my aquarium a bit ago, maybe they'll revive. I've had halimeda in the past and seen leaves die, just seems strange for two whole plants to crash at the same time. They are about 4" tall x 3" wide each. If one died would it take out the other too? Anyone have any theories? I have prolifera in the tank too. I also have 6 shrimp and a bunch of snails. Maybe it was losing the battle for calcium to all these and the coraline growth?
My halimeda crashed....
- Thread starter vapester
- Start date
bluenassarius
retired algae slanger
are you sure they died? i have halimeda in my tank also and when the lights go off they turn to bleach white then after a few hours with the lights on they turn green again.
..i've seen that type of thing before, but this just looked different, the greenness of the leaves looked to have come off, it had specs of green all over the white leaves. I thought when they turn white they just sorta change, not actually shed their green covers every time. Sound strange?
Samala
New member
They go completely white and they come back to green, Blue? Interesting. The stargrass I have will look a very pale green in the mornings but by the time the photoperiod has been kicked in for an hour or so it goes to a normal green color.
Vapester I havnet got any help on the halimeda melt down.. it does sound strange to me.
>Sarah
Vapester I havnet got any help on the halimeda melt down.. it does sound strange to me.
>Sarah
...actually I just thought of something. I usually keep my tank on a pretty set light cycle. I run both white and blue lights (power compacts) until about 7-8 pm then I run the blue lights until like 10-11 pm and shut them off. Last night I went out and I ran both lights until about midnight. Maybe the change in the lighting cycle threw them off and screwed up their own cycle. That's all I can think of. Anyhow I did a water change and put them back in the tank, i'll see what they look like tomorrow. thanks.....
kmk2307
Active member
Halimeda is a caulerpalean green algae. Like Caulerpa it sexually reproduces in a manner that involves the death of the parental thallus. Gametes are not formed through "budding" off the parental thallus, the parental intrasiphon (I would say intracellular but its one giant cell) material is cleaved up and converted directly into gametes. If it was nutrient (say nitrogen, phosphate, or iron) limited, that may have sparked this activity. Do you test your nitrates? Are they undetectable? Phosphate is almost never limiting in reef tanks unless you run phosban 24/7 or something. If one thallus decided to "go sexual" the gametes would likely signal another local thallus to go sexual too.
HTH,
Kevin
HTH,
Kevin
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