Algae that looks quite appealing.

[Sarpijk]

Hi all, sharing some close ups of an algae covered rock in my hillstream tank. The little green tufts have appeared recently and in my opinion looks very interesting to say the least.

 

[Sarpijk]

Could the tufts be some type of BBA?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

The little green tufts have appeared recently and in my opinion looks very interesting to say the least.

That rock <"looks lovely">.

Personally I look on green colour as a plus point, I think the rocks look much more natural with a patina of biofilm. You won't find any submerged rocks in nature that aren't colonised by plants or animals, unless they are continually scoured by sand etc.

It isn't quite the same, but what would the <"Statue of Liberty"> look like if they kept on scraping off the copper oxide so she wasn't green?

Could the tufts be some type of BBA?

It is quite dark, but I think it looks like a <"Green Algae">, "Red Algae" (like BBA) can be all sorts of colours, but they are never grass green.

cheers Darrel

 

[X3NiTH]

Close up it looks like Cyanobacteria matting, not too dissimilar to Stromatolite formation (obviously not fossilised). Looks like it’s being grazed around.

I agree it’s pretty!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Close up it looks like Cyanobacteria matting,

.......... and that would account for both the dark green colour, and lack of grazing?

cheers Darrel

 

[X3NiTH]

I think there’s a few species of algae on those rocks, from a distance it does look like the small tufts you get at the start of BBA but zooming in on the picture really closely -

If this is BBA then it certainly looks like it’s being encapsulated by a dark green Cyano type using it as a good foothold, it’s definitely being avoided as there’s trails all around it but not over it, must taste/smell really bad to the Snails!

 

[Sarpijk]

I have all shorts of grazing inhabitants from snails to shrimp and hillstream loaches.
It never occurred to me that it has developed due to lack of grazing. Thanks for the insight!

Never have I seen cyano algae in any of my tanks. This one in particular has very high flow although I should mention that the flow had been hugely decreased for around a month prior to fixing it. I have experienced BBA and a protein film so this might account for the appearance of the tufts.

Here are some pictures of the same rock back in December 20th.