Need help with ID...

Pez68

Member
I've got a couple things growing on one of my rocks and I'm having a hard time tracking down what they are. Anyone able to ID these? The purple mushroom looking things, and the red leaves. The red leaves grow out of the rock like a plant, with two leaves per "sprout". They are red, fairly transparent, and the leaves are shaped like a teardrop.

IMG_0165.jpg

IMG_0167.jpg
 
Also, some of these small red leafed plants have an orange fluorescence to them under the blue lights. VERY cool looking.
 
The purple mushroom looking things are just that, I've seen the algae before but don't have a specific ID for you, sorry. And if you were curious, the white blob in the bottom right of the mushroom pic is a colony of tunicates.
 
Yeah I have several tunicate colonies. A few pineapple sponges as well. That rock has a bunch of hair algae but it has so much other life I have just left it alone. I just pluck the hair algae when it gets long or ugly.

The red is some form of algae?
 
Something I should worry about? It seems to be quite hardy. When I toothbrush the hair algae it is unphased.
 
It can get invasive, but it stays short and doesn't look too bad :). A lot of fish eat it. If you don't have any herbivorous fish, it is extremely sensitive to heat. You can turn off your powerheads, warm some saltwater up a bit (hot tapwater temp), squirt it at the algae with a baster. Not sure how big your tank is, just be careful to not use too much and heat the tank water up. Or siphon the warm water out afterwards.
 
Back
Top