Red macroalgae, ID and recommendation

[steelhealr]

Hi....I didn't think much about a small amount of red macroalgae that I found as a hitchhiker on some LR that I added to my 24G NC more than a month ago or so. However, staring at my tank the other day, it seems to be expanding. I was wondering if there was a particular I.D. on this macroalgae and whether or not it could be a problem in the future. I have a 24G NC nano reef that has been doing very well under stock lighting (72W PC 50/50). Thanks in advance. SH

About a month or so ago:

Yesterday:

 

[kmk2307]

steelhealr,

Red algae, especially fleshy-thallose ones like that, are rarely problems in terms of taking over your aquarium. If it starts smothering your coral that would obvioulsy be bad, though. If you want it gone, a Turbo snail would probably eat it. Likewise, you could probably pull the rock out and scrape off the alga in a dish of water with a toothbrush. Can you post some more macro shots of the alga?

Thanks and HTH,
Kevin

 

[steelhealr]

Hi..thanks so much for your rapid reply. I am not the expert photographer, but, here are some more shots I took today, macro'd it as best I could:

SH

 

[steelhealr]

Ok...will look up thallose red algaes in the mean time. SH

 

[steelhealr]

????? Peyssonnelia squamaria ??? SH

 

[kmk2307]

No, Peyssonnelia is a calcifying corralinalean and each "blade" is much larger than the blades of your alga. I flipped through all three of my marine algae books and didn't see anything like this one.

Kevin

 

[steelhealr]

Uh oh....if a mod can't figure it out. It obviously must be in the class of Rhodophyta. I'll send an email to the Algaebase site and see if they can give me an ID. Whatever it is, it obviously has advanced. The question is ...will it overtake and the photo looks bothersome, no? SH

 

[steelhealr]

Kmk..just to let you know that I submitted these photos to the 'algaebase' and two professors were stumped. They actually have requested that I send a sample to them to examine. Is that unusual? The first prof thought it was Peysonnelia and then submitted it to a friend who was interested in subtropical algaes. He didn't know. They then requested a dried sample. I'll keep you posted. SH

 

[steelhealr]

Follow up. This macro is slowly spreading but does not seem to be harming the corals. As per request, I mailed a sample of the macro to the prof who requested it and it is presently being examined for an I.D. IMO, if they can identify it, then, perhaps there is a natural predator for it.

Ominous sign..can you recognize an astrea snail? SH

 

[Thurge]

That looks very similar to some algae I have that I was told was called Fauchea (or something along those lines). The portion that is growing in my overflow actually will floress red under my 14K MH.
Hasn't taken over anythign yet...

 

[steelhealr]

I'll look it up. This stuff doesn't fluoresce that I can tell. It has gone from a small patch on one rock to everywhere now. Fortunately, corals are intact.....for now. SH

 

[steelhealr]

OK...here is the reply:

We were looking at the little red alga that you sent to me. It is a pretty little things and is clearly a member of the family Delesseriaceae and even has reproductive structures. We're not sure, but it may be a Haraldiophyllum, a relatively rare and interesting genus. We will send some plants to an expert in the family to see if can add a name.

SH

 

[kmk2307]

Cool! Go algaebase!

 

[steelhealr]

Great guy this Dr. Guiry. He's been very kind. I told him that he could use the photos above if he needs them for this species. I asked him if a longspine sea urchin would do the trick, but, he was under the impression that this one may have toxins in it. SH

 

[Samala]

Its beautiful.. so hard to believe it coated the snail like that! I'm really amazed its spreading so quickly. I think its lovely, I wonder if you are willing to send 'samples' out to us crazy macro loving folks? I should PM I guess. I love the guys at Algaebase, always good for a debate over ID.

By the way.. fluorescing algae would be REALLY interesting. Do you have a shot of it doing that under the 14k? I am getting ideas.. its a red fluorescence?

>Sarah

 

[steelhealr]

Hi...I'd be happy to send you some, but, it DOES spread. You can see that it is on several of my astreas who I am SURE are seeding the rest of the tank.

I can't make a comment about fluorescing as this is under 72 watts of 50/50 acitinic PC lights. I will say that the interesting thing about this macro is the light blue highlights as you can see above( is that fluorescing?).

It IS attractive to look at..it makes the LR look like an outdoor red bush. Probably processes nutrients as well, which, would give it a large surface area to do by spreading. Not invasive to my corals as yet, just pervasive. SH

 

[karmenkame]

I had the same stuff in my nano tank. It started to grow on the on stick on which I received my bulls eye mushroom coral. It started to smother my mushroom. So I just tossed the thing yesterday. I didn't realize that anyone would want it otherwise I would have sent to off.

It has also spread a bit to a nearby rock. So, I am interested to find if there is something that can stop it and if it will continue to spread. For the most part, it was confined to the one stick, but a portion of that stick was on another rock, therefore it stated to spread onto that rock.

 

[gmy]

Same here......... my culture grew from a very small segment of live rock .............. attached to a empty shell and quickly blossomed into a nice colorful macro addition.

It appears to spread very easily to anything in close contact........ by the way my turbos wont touch it. In fact a small amount hair algae that was growing on top of it was "cleaned" up instead.

 

[steelhealr]

Noted.....I may gamble and try a longspine sea urchin. I'll let you know how it goes. The prof thinks that this red macro may contain toxins and that urchins might not touch it. It is now covering about 30-40% of my LR and has patches on the substrate. I'm picking those patches off. SH

 

[steelhealr]

It's amazing how the internet can bring a professor of marine phycology right into your own living room. This was a follow up email I received from the prof who I.D.'d the rare macro in my tank. Appears someone else is having a similar problem. He sent it to me as an FYI. As they say at Farber College, "Knowledge is Good". Hope you find this as fascinating as I have. SH

Dear Mike

I would be grateful for any help you could provide in identifying the red-purple branching macro alga which is plaguing my 120-gal reef tank. Please find attached photos. The alga grows very rapidly and is approx. 1mm thick and highly branching. The side branches tend to grow from one side of the main branch and the fronds are asymmetrical. It spreads rapidly and appears to have spore forming fruiting bodies at its tips see last macro photo. Exposure to air or fresh water results in cell damage causing the branches to fluoresce bright orange. Branches exposed in this way die rapidly but regrow. The branches have beautiful iridescent blue scales in rows which can be seen in the macro photos. The fruiting bodies also look gray from a distance and can be seen in the first photo. I have three tangs including purple, hippo and sailfin all of which donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t find it very tasty. Turbo snails and hermits also ignore it. At the current rate of growth most of my rock will be covered in two or three months. The tank is very brightly lit to support hard coral growth and the alga tends not to grow in the fully exposed areas. I'm very impressed with the extent of your database but I'm finding it very difficult to narrow down my search to a manageable area as I don't have any background in this field. If you are interested I'd be please to send you a sample.

All the best

Linden