Can you ID this algae under microscope?

[zalick]

Any algae experts that can ID this algae under microscope? And to answer questions that will certainly come, no, at this point I won't post other non-microscopic pictures. Looking for purely a scientific ID, or as close as possible, based solely on the cellular structure.;Bookworm

And for the record: I have no idea what type of algae this is, but its growing in my tank. I have a different thread in the algae forum documenting my process to eliminate it (and dinos).

 

[Kerbash]

It’s definitely not a prokaryotic cells as evident by its chloroplast, so that rules out Cyanobacteria. I the closest I could get to is that it’s a species of green filamentous colonial unicellular algae and not in the Spirogyra genus lol (no characteristic spiraling of chloroplast).

But anyway for most microorganisms with out a biochemical test, using only a light microscope, narrowing it down to even just the phylum is quite difficult.

Anyway hopes that helps :)

 

[zalick]

It’s definitely not a prokaryotic cells as evident by its chloroplast, so that rules out Cyanobacteria. I the closest I could get to is that it’s a species of green filamentous colonial unicellular algae and not in the Spirogyra genus lol (no characteristic spiraling of chloroplast).

But anyway for most microorganisms with out a biochemical test, using only a light microscope, narrowing it down to even just the phylum is quite difficult.

Anyway hopes that helps :)

Thanks! At first I thought it was GHA, but didn't quite look right. I also thought turf, but again, it seems to grow longer. I'm colorblind, but my wife says its mostly green, but also some tan color.

Since you seem to know your stuff re: algae species, Is there a book on algae ID that you know of? I've found surprisingly little info online beyond mere visual ID.

 

[Kerbash]

Yeah to my knowledge the accessibility of documentation on algaes and most other microbes are almost none existent lol. Just look on Wikipedia! In the Bryopsis genus (where most of the green algae are) the species list is empty! And I’m not sure is there a public database for easy access.

You could always look on the PubMed website and search for green hair algae species report and just comb through. Although terriably boring but it’s free.

You could also bring it to your local university and ask the scientists there lol. Speaking from personal experience everyone scientists loves it when you want to talk about their area of expertise and it’s harder to shut them up than to get them to start talking.

Another option if you really want to know the specie and you have extra cash. Is to sent it to 18s RNA sequencing, I think it’s around ~$200 per sample for private individuals. And then Blast it against the blast database, see what organism matches up.