Penicillus sp. reproducing quickly.

Will

Will

Premium Member
Hola amigos,
About a month and a half ago, I ordered a Merman's Shaving Brush (Penicillus sp.) from an online dealer. I just ordered one, and now I have three. It's created two more by means of what seems to be runners or stolons of some sort. Anybody have any experience with this? I've never really heard of them reproducing (actually heard that they don't do very well in captivity), so any information on the subject would be greatly appreciated. They're such cool algae, and I'm pretty elated that it's reproducing so quickly.
-Will
 
Yeah, they reproduce via runners as you've found out ;) Had some growing nicely under a 400 watt halide, but alas disturbing the sand bed too often seems to have done it in :(
 
Bad news is the original one died :( It never did really well though. I acutally got it before my lighting system came in, so a good bit died off. But then it created the second one just in time. The third one came up about a week or two ago and is developing well. That stinks that you lost yours Bill :( I'm gonna be moving in August, and the tanks will be moved too (of course). I hope I don't disturb them too much! Yikes! I'll be careful though....
-Will
ps- I don't know if you remember, but when I ordered my Thallasia from you a month or two ago, you threw in a runner of another grass as well. It's growing quickly! I'll get some pictures sooner or later..
 
This is one of my favorite macro's.
I have not found it to be particularly finicky. It has pretty good regenrative abilities. I have two species and they both are pretty tough plants.

They look very nice on a open white sand, like a mini forest. Just leave them alone and let them do their thing. They like current, most marine plants do.

Make sure they don't get shaded over. They like full sun/light.

The general pattern is the original one dies and the regrowth comes back and then they send off runners. A number of macro's follow this pattern.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Picture of my shaving brush as it appears this morning... these are sprouts 2 and 3 from the same parent plant. Sprout one was lost to my large, bumbling electric-blue-leg hermit...
shaving_brush_sprouts.jpg
 
Found the 'skeleton,' last night, of another sprout I didn't see initially because it went under the pod-pile. Just a white stalk left now...

The center sprout in the picture above is receeding (assumed dead), the left-most sprout was 'hit' by a passing snail or crab and has stalled it's growth (leaning towards losing that one as well) and now the parent tree is looking 'old' and gaining some red branches...

Still having no luck finding replacement/additional shaving brushes. These can't be this frail in the wild, right? Seems everytime something brushes up against the sprouts they die... or I'm missing something in the water/substrate to allow the sprouts to grow correctly.

Any advice on supplementing these specific plants or protecting the shoots (tried building a rubble-wall around an earlier sprout and the wall was pushed over the top of the sprout) would be great.
 
i have a decent forest of them in one of my
10g prop tanks, if you want some PM me.
as you found out the parent frequently dies
back but the root ball usually sends off
runners if left alone. all 6-7 of my originals
have died but i ended up with about 18
shoots with more on the way.
 
I'll give these two sprouts another day or two before giving up all hope...


then I'll drop you a PM. :D


Thanks,
 
Scott,

Can I ask you for those and any other clear algal photos you have (preferably without any text and arrows like above)? I need them for an online Algal ID-and-descrip guide.

Your name would be clearly marked on the photo (just like Jim Bednar's Bryopsis photo, as featured in the Bryopsis thread on this forum).

My e-mail addy is horge, followed by @, followed by hotmail.com
(I am phrasing it that way to try to foil mailbots), and you would have to include the name you want to appear on the pic (first initial and family name, typically)



horge
 
Good plan on the mail-bot foiling (I forget that they are out there so often and have just accepted spam as a daily routine... hehe).

How would you like the photos; unaltered and original size or cropped and web-friendly?
 
Fourhand,

Can you share who you got your shaving brush from? and would you recommend them to others?
 
If things are going well for the Sea fan and the brush, they will slowly grow out but make sure you have enough Ca in there.
The SeaFan will regrow near the base etc, same for some species of Halimeda(eg H. discodiea).
Keep constant good fish feeding routines and Ca levels.

I think some of the new growth you are seeing is from the reserves from the parent plant. When it's exhausted, the new growth ceases.

Both plants need a fair amount of Ca to grow well.
FWIW,

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Dag,
Surprisingly enough, I got my original one from LiveAquaria. They're very corporate, but they have fairly healthy livestock and good company policies. I'd recommend them to anybody, but I'd be wary of their corals. I've never bought a coral from them, but I'd guess that a larger company would have a tough time making sure delicate organisms are cared for correctly. They seem to be pretty straight-up though. I've bought a good amount from them in the past (gorgonians, a few fish, shrimp, snails, etc.).
-Will
 
shaving brush

shaving brush

I've had shaving brush reproduce for me in a 3 gall nano i used to have.. but alas i found out the hard way that it didnt' like to be disturbed ...
and both the parent and runner plantlet died...

i was a bit too picky about where i wanted what back then.. now i know to let things kind of grow into the places that suit them best

patience little grasshopper!

Joe
 
Two new sprouts over the past week or so (even with the parent in bad shape).

One is large enough that it could be considered a plant on its own (already branching open - which is farther along than any other sprout that has come before it).

Pics tonight, just didn't want to forget... ;)
 
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