Algae ID. Derbesia? Cladophora?

[Kaisentlaia]

Hello everyone, I'm trying to id some nuisance algae I want to get rid of.

To the naked eye looks like I have three different kinds but I'm not really sure. I tried to take some pics with my cheap usb microscope, not the best but I hope they'll help:

Algae 1 (Cladophora?)
Wiry and stiff, branching, strongly attached to the rock. Impossible to pull off manually, the only way to remove it is scraping away the surface layer of rock with a metal tool. Grows in lower light, bottom half of the tank. There are a few strands on the top of the rock but they're stunted and don't seem to grow much.

In the tank​	In the tank​
Closeup​	Low magnification​
High magnification​	High magnification​

Algae 2 (Chaetomorpha antennina?)
Clumps are hard to pull off manually but kinda easy to scrape at the base with a metal tool. Usually the whole clump comes off but it regrows in the same spot after a while. Grows on the top of the rock in high light/high flow area.

In the tank (yes I know it's also full of BA)​	In the tank​
Closeup​	Low magnification​
High magnification​	High magnification​

Algae 3 (Some kind of Bryopsis maybe?)
Slowest grower of the three, well rooted as the others but a little easier to scrape off. Grows on the top of the rock in high light/high flow area.

In the tank​	In the tank​
Closeup (it grows intertwined with algae 2)​	Low magnification​
High magnification​	High magnification​

What are they? I hope emerald crabs or money cowries will eat them. They survived two rip cleanings, I'm considering an attempt with peroxide dipping at this point.

 

[Dan_P]

Hello everyone, I'm trying to id some nuisance algae I want to get rid of.

To the naked eye looks like I have three different kinds but I'm not really sure. I tried to take some pics with my cheap usb microscope, not the best but I hope they'll help:

Algae 1 (Cladophora?)
Wiry and stiff, branching, strongly attached to the rock. Impossible to pull off manually, the only way to remove it is scraping away the surface layer of rock with a metal tool. Grows in lower light, bottom half of the tank. There are a few strands on the top of the rock but they're stunted and don't seem to grow much.

In the tank​	In the tank​
Closeup​	Low magnification​
High magnification​	High magnification​

Algae 2 (Chaetomorpha antennina?)
Clumps are hard to pull off manually but kinda easy to scrape at the base with a metal tool. Usually the whole clump comes off but it regrows in the same spot after a while. Grows on the top of the rock in high light/high flow area.

In the tank (yes I know it's also full of BA)​	In the tank​
Closeup​	Low magnification​
High magnification​	High magnification​

Algae 3 (Some kind of Bryopsis maybe?)
Slowest grower of the three, well rooted as the others but a little easier to scrape off. Grows on the top of the rock in high light/high flow area.

In the tank​	In the tank​
Closeup (it grows intertwined with algae 2)​	Low magnification​
High magnification​	High magnification​

What are they? I hope emerald crabs or money cowries will eat them. They survived two rip cleanings, I'm considering an attempt with peroxide dipping at this point.

Pretty algae. Too bad they don’t fit in with your plans.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

Pretty algae. Too bad they don’t fit in with your plans.

I used to think they looked nice and let them grow: I ended up having to rip clean the tank because they covered every available surface and started choking corals. So now I'm trying to keep them in check. If I didn't have any corals I'd totally keep them though, they're cool.

If you like them I can mail you some

 

[Dan_P]

I used to think they looked nice and let them grow: I ended up having to rip clean the tank because they covered every available surface and started choking corals. So now I'm trying to keep them in check. If I didn't have any corals I'd totally keep them though, they're cool.

If you like them I can mail you some

You‘re terrific! If you lived closer, I would definitely have you mail some algae

 

[bnord]

Not sure what i can add to your ID, but would like to say this is by far the best set of comprehensive photos i have ever seen in an ID posting - Ben fatto

what i can say is that lettuce nudribranchs helped out one of my similar infestations where all other grazers failed. A “borrowed” Donabella from an LFS (it will run out of food in my experience) if that is possible

best of luck and keep up the great threads

 

[Kaisentlaia]

Not sure what i can add to your ID, but would like to say this is by far the best set of comprehensive photos i have ever seen in an ID posting - Ben fatto

what i can say is that lettuce nudribranchs helped out one of my similar infestations where all other grazers failed. A “borrowed” Donabella from an LFS (it will run out of food in my experience) if that is possible

best of luck and keep up the great threads

Thanks! I think it's almost impossible to ID algae just from a couple of blurry pics so I tried to be as comprehensive as possible. A cheap microscope does help!

I wish I could find a lettuce nudibranch, but those are extremely hard to come by around here. Can't borrow animals from LFS either, but thanks for the tip! Maybe this will be useful information for someone else stumbling onto this thread in search for answers.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

After an intensive googling session I'm pretty sure that algae 1 is some kind of Cladophora, Derbesia looks similar but it usually has sporangia and mine has none.

Algae 2 is still a mystery, some kinds of Valoniopsis look kinda similar but they branch and mine doesn't. Probably not Chaetomorpha antennina, it looks rather different under the microscope.

Algae 3 is definitely NOT Bryopsis. It might be either Boodlea composita or some kind of Phyllodictyon (some pics of Phyllodictyon anastomosans look quite similar).

Not much information online on these algae either so it will be pretty hard to find something that eats them. Cowries (Monetaria annulus) seem to ignore them so far, can't wait to grab an emerald crab and see if it finds them palatable.

 

[taricha]

Bumping this. Nice work.
certainly not bryopsis or derbesia. Those are much thinner.
this is my fave starting point for ID's
http://cfb.unh.edu/phycokey/phycokey.htm

you are probably within the chlorophytes with all these.
http://cfb.unh.edu/phycokey/Choices/Chlorophyceae/Chloro_key.html

I like cladophora for 1
agree that 2 would be segmented if chaetomorpha.

3) looks like boodlea is a very good visual match
https://www.researchgate.net/figure...-B-Detail-of-branching-cells-C_fig1_345718772

 

[taricha]

A comment on removal. My foxface would eat all those without even bothering to ID their genus first.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

this is my fave starting point for ID's
http://cfb.unh.edu/phycokey/phycokey.htm

That's where I started that and google image search

A comment on removal. My foxface would eat all those without even bothering to ID their genus first.

I wish I could stick a foxface in my 8.5g but alas

Peroxide works really well on bubble algae and the probably cladophora though! I still have to try on the other two, more details here if anyone's interested.

 

[taricha]

I wish I could stick a foxface in my 8.5g but alas

emerald crab might be a good smaller option.
h2o2 may be as well.

 

[Kaisentlaia]

emerald crab might be a good smaller option.
h2o2 may be as well.

Emerald is the next on my list as soon as the NSLFS gets some.