Hi all well you might have seen me in other threads arguing for understanding bacteria and better ecological ways forward. Well I'm here to introduce you to some new thoughts on cyano mat formers. I mean we all know it's an imbalance in the aquarium, usually cited as some nutrient issue. However maybe when we focus like that we miss the big picture and how life works in the unforgiving ocean. So let's take a quick look at this paper right here...
Now I'm at home so haven't seen the full text yet but wow! I mean as someone who has worked in biocontrol (using biological agents to reduce the population of another biological entity) this makes perfect sense.
Tldr: if you have an aquarium with healthy bacteriovores (ciliates) and something else that loves the mucilage (rotifers in this instance) you will likely have less cyano problems.
And as I think of joining the reef business world combinations like these will make good products that are biologically and scientifically sound.
Thanks all!
Eric
#bacteriarule
Rotifers weaken the efficiency of the cyanobacterium defence against ciliate grazers - PubMed
Cyanobacteria can protect themselves through limited dispersion and by increasing the compactness of the mucilage-covered cyanobacterial mat as well as by producing sheaths covering their trichomes. These features have been used in research to measure their degree of inducible defence. The...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Now I'm at home so haven't seen the full text yet but wow! I mean as someone who has worked in biocontrol (using biological agents to reduce the population of another biological entity) this makes perfect sense.
Tldr: if you have an aquarium with healthy bacteriovores (ciliates) and something else that loves the mucilage (rotifers in this instance) you will likely have less cyano problems.
And as I think of joining the reef business world combinations like these will make good products that are biologically and scientifically sound.
Thanks all!
Eric
#bacteriarule