Caulerpa mexicana - Sporulation

[madadium]

Does anyone have experience with C. mexicana in their display refugium?

I'm about to get some from another hobbyist and I'm worried about the possibility of sexual reproduction or sporulation leading to a lack of oxygen and killing off my other inhabitants.

I don't run a skimmer (it's a 32g all-in-one) so the water is oxygenated by surface agitation and photosynthesis only.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Subsea]

I have grown three different Caulerpa in display tanks:
Mexicana, Prolifera, Paspalpoides. Paspaloides & Prolifera grow the fastest and are more prone to going sexual. The best way for fast growing macro to go sexual is to deprive it of nutrients.

without an opposite light schedule in an algae refugium, when lights go out, all photosynthetic organisms use oxygen and respire carbon dioxide. So corals, macro and bacteria all consume oxygen when lights are out.
Make sure you have robust circulation at surface to provide good gas exchange. Also consider an air stone in your filter chamber.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I used mexi calupra for many years and never had a problem with it going asexual.
D

 

[RuuToo]

I’ve had Mexicana go sexual on me probably a dozen times over the years. I could spot the signs (which seemed to happen when nutrients got super low) a day or so before it started to melt and start to pull as much as I could. Honestly it never seemed to have that much of a negative impact for me (but I was running a skimmer) - it seemed to be more of a heavy feeding for the rest of the tank, but I wasn’t keeping anything all that sensitive at the time. Keeping it well trimmed and not letting it get to the point where it would exhaust nutrients seemed to help.

To be brutally honest though, chaeto is less twitchy, more forgiving and seems to need less therapy so I’ve stuck with that for the last 5 years or so, and I wouldn’t go back

 

[r20crazy]

if you are already worried why risk it? thats like knowing the risks of city tap water but asking if you should use it anyway.... or driving at night with one headlight and 1 eye patch... can you...SURE, SHOULD you????

 

[Subsea]

I’ve had Mexicana go sexual on me probably a dozen times over the years. I could spot the signs (which seemed to happen when nutrients got super low) a day or so before it started to melt and start to pull as much as I could. Honestly it never seemed to have that much of a negative impact for me (but I was running a skimmer) - it seemed to be more of a heavy feeding for the rest of the tank, but I wasn’t keeping anything all that sensitive at the time. Keeping it well trimmed and not letting it get to the point where it would exhaust nutrients seemed to help.

To be brutally honest though, chaeto is less twitchy, more forgiving and seems to need less therapy so I’ve stuck with that for the last 5 years or so, and I wouldn’t go back

OP is interested in display macro, so Chaeto is not best choice. I agree totally with your observation about it not being necessarily catastrophic in your system. I pushed both Caulerpa Paspoidoides & Prolifera with 1000W of MH at 6500 Kelvin, color rendition. It grew into a gorgeous mixed garden in 150G display. One morning, I woke up to a major meltdown where I could not see the back glass 2’ away. During this event, I considered BOD to be most critical, so I added an air stone in addition to robust circulation at water surface in display tank and cascading water draining from display to 40G cryptic refugium. I also added GAC, granulated activated carbon, for chemical filtration of DOC, dissolved organic carbon.

@madadium
consider other choices aside from feather Caulerpa.

Check out this link. Russ Kronwetter is diver owner of GulfCoast Ecosystems and has written the most pragmatic free guide on macroalgae/seaweed.

Marine Plants In The Aquarium: An online guide to the identification and care of marine plants and macroalgae in the aquarium.

An online guide to the identification and care of marine plants and macroalgae in the aquarium.

www.marineplantbook.com

Ten days ago, I received 75lbs of diver collected uncured live rock which was air freighted within 24hours of being collected in 30’ of water, 30 miles west of Tampa Bay, Florida

 

[RuuToo]

Yeah. I missed that bit

I had a really nice 72 gallon display refugium that I kept seahorses and then pipefish in years ago. I may have even coined the term “display refugium” back in 2014 (but probably not )

I dug up a picture from that thread. I loved that tank, but it was 30” tall and a pita to maintain, which is probably why it would boom and bust pretty often. No room for that in the new house unfortunately.

 

[madadium]

@Subsea thank you so much

OP is interested in display macro, so Chaeto is not best choice. I agree totally with your observation about it not being necessarily catastrophic in your system. I pushed both Caulerpa Paspoidoides & Prolifera with 1000W of MH at 6500 Kelvin, color rendition. It grew into a gorgeous mixed garden in 150G display. One morning, I woke up to a major meltdown where I could not see the back glass 2’ away. During this event, I considered BOD to be most critical, so I added an air stone in addition to robust circulation at water surface in display tank and cascading water draining from display to 40G cryptic refugium. I also added GAC, granulated activated carbon, for chemical filtration of DOC, dissolved organic carbon.

@madadium
consider other choices aside from feather Caulerpa.

Check out this link. Russ Kronwetter is diver owner of GulfCoast Ecosystems and has written the most pragmatic free guide on macroalgae/seaweed.

Marine Plants In The Aquarium: An online guide to the identification and care of marine plants and macroalgae in the aquarium.

An online guide to the identification and care of marine plants and macroalgae in the aquarium.

www.marineplantbook.com

Ten days ago, I received 75lbs of diver collected uncured live rock which was air freighted within 24hours of being collected in 30’ of water, 30 miles west of Tampa Bay, Florida

Thank you so much for sharing that resource! I have a lot of reading to do!

I love the look of it but will do some more research and keep it in check if I end up adding some. It seems most people have issues when the nutrients get low, so I'm wondering if just adding a small skimmer (for aeration) is a good idea... It'll be tricky to set up just an airstone without salt creep from bubbles popping becoming an issue.

Maybe a small skimmer that's not actively "skimming" is the best choice if I'm not around if/when such an event occurs.

Thanks for all your help and advice everyone!

 

[Subsea]

Yeah. I missed that bit

I had a really nice 72 gallon display refugium that I kept seahorses and then pipefish in years ago. I may have even coined the term “display refugium” back in 2014 (but probably not )

I dug up a picture from that thread. I loved that tank, but it was 30” tall and a pita to maintain, which is probably why it would boom and bust pretty often. No room for that in the new house unfortunately.

My 150G was 30” deep. Nothing motivational about
wet armpit hairs.

 

[Subsea]

@Subsea thank you so much

Thank you so much for sharing that resource! I have a lot of reading to do!

I love the look of it but will do some more research and keep it in check if I end up adding some. It seems most people have issues when the nutrients get low, so I'm wondering if just adding a small skimmer (for aeration) is a good idea... It'll be tricky to set up just an airstone without salt creep from bubbles popping becoming an issue.

Maybe a small skimmer that's not actively "skimming" is the best choice if I'm not around if/when such an event occurs.

Thanks for all your help and advice everyone!

When high energy photosynthesis is driving fast growing macro and nutrients bottom, but leave high energy, then macro will self destruct and regrow, it’s a natural process. In the Caribbean, sea turtles graze on new growth as most nutritious.

Consider this, I removed Caulerpa Mexicana from a new start Caribbean biotheme tank started two months ago
and put it in low energy light tank. Note how small it is compared to GSP. One other thing about C Mexicana:
Don’t let Mexicana holdfast on good rock. It is difficult to remove. I easily remove C Paspoidies and C Prolifera holdfast on rock, but prefer keeping there holdfast in the sansbed, which further provides habitats for diversity in micro fauna & fana.

PS: All but the first picture of a 55G high energy Caribbean biotheme tank. The biggest reason for high energy “vertical loop“ current is to assist wirh curing diver collected live rock from 30’ deep 30 miles west of Tamp, Florida.

Rock has been in my systems for 10 days. Rock was in my tanks within 28 hrs of collecting.