Possible dino identification?

[Waters]

If these are dinos (mixed with green algae and cyano) like I think they are, what species? Strange part, is I had a major asterina plague that I have had for months. I decided to hand pick them out nightly for about a week. As soon as I got rid of them, these appeared along with cyano. The starfish were eating my coralline and it appears a lot of other things lol.

 

[EnterName]

Prorocentrum sp. (Prorocentrum being the genus)

Actual species level identification is very difficult (up to impossible) just by light microscopy.

It doesn't matter much to be honest. I would observe the behavior at night when the lights go dim and go from there. A UV sterilizer won't hurt either way, even for those that mostly migrate deeper into the substrate. During manual removal some will get into the open water column and the UV sterilizer can pick them up.

 

[Waters]

Prorocentrum sp. (Prorocentrum being the genus)

Actual species level identification is very difficult (up to impossible) just by light microscopy.

It doesn't matter much to be honest. I would observe the behavior at night when the lights go dim and go from there. A UV sterilizer won't hurt either way, even for those that mostly migrate deeper into the substrate. During manual removal some will get into the open water column and the UV sterilizer can pick them up.

I run UV 24X7 and don't have a sandbed so they are strictly on rocks. There was also no movement which I thought was strange. I think removing the starfish so quickly just threw everything out of whack. They were essentially my CUC keeping everything at bay. Unfortuantely they started cleaning out my coralline so I decided to get rid of them....only to allow everything else to take over it appears.

 

[EnterName]

I run UV 24X7 and don't have a sandbed so they are strictly on rocks. There was also no movement which I thought was strange. I think removing the starfish so quickly just threw everything out of whack. They were essentially my CUC keeping everything at bay. Unfortuantely they started cleaning out my coralline so I decided to get rid of them....only to allow everything else to take over it appears.

The green filaments next to the dinos look "interesting". They are very small and might have very thin segments. Did some of them move by any chance? That could be theoretically be cyanobacteria as green hair algae is usually thicker.

Did your nutrient levels (NO₃, PO₄) went to zero recently by any chance?

 

[Waters]

The green filaments next to the dinos look "interesting". They are very small and might have very thin segments. Did some of them move by any chance? That could be theoretically be cyanobacteria as green hair algae is usually thicker.

Did your nutrient levels (NO₃, PO₄) went to zero recently by any chance?

Yeah, it is definately cyano. I have a little bit of everything although nothing is out of control by any means. Again, this all happened within days of removing hundreds of starfish. No, nutrients have been steady at .08 phosphates and 9 nitrates for over a year.

 

[EnterName]

Yeah, it is definately cyano. I have a little bit of everything although nothing is out of control by any means. Again, this all happened within days of removing hundreds of starfish. No, nutrients have been steady at .08 phosphates and 9 nitrates for over a year.

I see... well maybe you can get your hands on a different CUC and go back to normal. Manual removal will certainly also help a bit in the meanwhile. You will have to find out what works for your tank.

 

[Waters]

I did add an additional group of snails...and borrowed a harlequin shrimp lol.