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Unidentified black and clear unwanted visitor - any ideas?

Wisey

Member
Joined
19 Jul 2014
Messages
1,062
Hi All,

I posted about this in my journal but didn't get any comments there, so thought I would start a thread for this specific visitor to see if anyone has any ideas?

Unfortunately I don't have a great picture of it. I noticed it on my bog wood, it almost blended in as most of it was black, but it had what looked like a shiny tip to it. I took hold of it with my pinsettes expecting to to come straight off, but it was really quite stubborn. I gave it a pull and away it came, so removed it and had a look. It was roughly round in shape, but with a flat end that was stuck to the wood and about 5 mm long. The end stuck to the wood was black, in fact most of it was black, like the first 4mm, it was just the last 1mm of it that was clear and it was the light reflecting of this clear part that made me see it in the first place.

I picked it up and rolled it between my fingers to see what it was and that removed the water so it went from being shiny to a more matte colour. The pic I'm about to post from my phone below is what it looked like after it had been dried and a bit squished from rolling it. When I say squished, it was firm enough that I could not actually squash it and destroy it, but it compressed enough that it rolled up in to a more compact shape.

Anyone got any ideas what this might be please? I did have a look through the strange critters thread on here, but did not see anything that looked like this.
 
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It doesn't help that I squished it I guess, I really wish I had a pic as it was when it came out the water. It has quite a rubbery feel to it. What sort of seed could it be?
 
It will be a shame if it was a seed as it was stuck to the bogwood in-between the Anubias and Microsorum right where I was thinking I needed to plant something to fill in the gap at some point! I thought it was more some sort of limpet type creature that may well go and eat my plants, especially with it being next to the Microsorum that had the leaf damage.
 
So tonight upon investigation I can see more of these things on my bogwood. This might give a better idea what it looks like without being handled.

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I suppose you bought that wood at some pet store.. :) Maybe they did spill some bird seed around and it ended up between the bogwood.. :) If that's the case you go back and inspect the birdseeds they sell and ask what's all in there. Maybe the seed is still fertile, ut it in the dirt and see if it comes up the plant would be easier to determinated once it has some leaves.
 
I bought the wood from gree0044 on Ebay, his shop is Aqua Nature World: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/aquanatureworld/

I didn't see any signs of seeds on the wood before and it was soaked for 3 weeks prior to going in the aquarium. You can see from page 1 of my journal that these things did not exist on the wood when the aquarium was set up, they have just appeared in the last week. I have looked again over the weekend and even more have appeared, there are at least 7 of these things on the wood now! They are all roughly in the same area, that central piece of the wood between the Anubias and the Microsorum.

Is it possible that the spores from the Microsorum have established on the wood and this is going to be new plants? I'm just monitoring for now and see what happens, but have to say I am a little worried in case it is something else undesirable!
 
Maybe i little far-fetched, but it would be very unique.. There are sorts of (aquatic mushrooms) :) Never seen them but can imagine they also like the terrestrial ones grow on dead wood.

The discovered a spieces of Psathyrella growing in a river, they baptised it Psathyrella aquatica. Maybe you have an other Mushroom able to fruit aquatic. :)
would be a laugh..
 
I really don't know what these things are, but there are more of them! I'll get some more pictures this evening, I'll probably remove another one from the wood but get some shots of it before I handle it.
 
Realy looks like a mushrooms button stage also called Volva.. :) Myceliums also grow on wood..
My bet goes to mushroom.. Actualy it's more like i would like it to be, that would be realy great and rare find in a freshwater aquarium.. In salt water there iis talk about mushrooms but i'm not sure if they are real marine mushrooms or just some kind of coral.


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Ok, well I had another look at this tonight and took some pictures. I don't have a macro lens for the DSLR so the pics came out crap, but I used my compact camera which has a macro mode and got some better pics. I'm now fairly sure that this is some sort of algae, but im not sure what the clear part is or what algae this is or how I should treat it. It removes really easily, I took two bits out tonight to get better pictures. So, here are the pics which might shed more light on the issue.


Multiple "things" on the bogwood.
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Another shot
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This is straight after removing and placing on paper, so it is still water logged at the moment. You can see it looks black, but on the right it has the clear part.

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Another shot where you can see the dark and clear parts as the paper starts to absorb the water from it

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A little drier now and then post mortemed with the pinsettes. You can see it is actually green rather than black and you can still see the clearer part that I have broken up

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Yeah, I'm guessing a fungus or algae or something like that, it's certainly flora rather than my initial thought when I saw the first one that it was fauna, some sort of limpet/leech type thing.I'm guessing its not something that I want, but it is easy to remove, so should just be able to pick it off. I'll wait to hear some opinions on whether to remove it or see what it turns in to. I'm tempted to leave one of the bigger bits to see what it becomes, but won't do that if it will be detrimental to the aquarium.
 
Fungus would be my guess. Spot-treat with liquid CO2 for a couple a days (use a syringe on the affected spots, shut off the fiter for 10 minutes), and should be gone forever. I almost always get some white/ black/ green fungus-type stuff on new wood, and liquid CO2 has not failed me once.
 
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