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What exactly causes BBA?

Yes, I read in that book that Audouinella can look similar to Chantransia which is some sort of a life stage of Batrachospermum species but they differ in colour and the two have often been confused.
To be honest, I don't know enough to distinguish them under a microscope but I'll take a picture of my BBA for the sake of it to see if it looks the same way.
The reason I ruled out mine being Audoinella is because mine is not red, not even the slightest tint or hue and I've seen reddish BBA in tanks different than mine. Mine is black/greyish/greenish type of red algae.

Audoinella is visibly red and Chantransia of Batrachospermum is black/grey. The book I read says for now that's the only reasonable way to distinguish Audoinella from Chantransia, by the colour.

BBA species probably differ from tank to tank.
Also Audoinella may grow on top of Lemanea as an epiphyte and both are red algae forms.
 
Hi all,
sciencefiction said:
The reason I ruled out mine being Audoinella is because mine is not red, not even the slightest tint or hue and I've seen reddish BBA in tanks different than mine. Mine is black/greyish/greenish type of red algae.
Click to expand...
The bit I took out of the tank was the standard dark BBA colour. The images came out red, but it wasn't obvious in the living plant, and that may have been to do with the colour temperature of the microscope lamp.

cheers Darrel
 
The microscopic images online I can find for Audoinella and that look similar to the images you posted are for Audionella hermaninni. It doesn't look at all like what I have but maybe they have different life stages changing their appearance or depending on conditions... How would I know anyway.... A. eugenea and A. pygmaea are the others that thrive in warmer waters but I can't find much about them or their microscopic images. Apparently Audionella is a marine mostly species with just a few fresh water representatives where Batrachospermum species are strictly freshwater.
I'll post my images here as soon as I get them and then start researching more.
 
sciencefiction said:
Here are some of the Chantransia

http://dbmuseblade.colorado.edu/DiatomTwo/sbsac_site/genus.php?g=Chantransia
Click to expand...

And some extracts about Audoinella and Chantransia.

The sequence data clearly show these specimens to be chantransia stages of Batrachospermum taxa.
Recently, other described freshwater Audouinella taxa have also been shown to be chantransia stages.

The blue-colored
Audouinella species have not been observed to contain
gametangia, carposporophytes, or tetrasporangia in 34
collections in North America (Necchi et al., 1993b).
This finding may indicate that they are not, in fact, true
Audouinella species, but rather one of the life history
stages of the Batrachospermales, the “chantransia” (see
below). Further substantiating this possibility, Pueschel
et al. (2000) have demonstrated that isolates formerly
classified as the blue-colored Audouinella macrospora
were positioned in an 18S rRNA gene tree with samples
of Batrachospermum and not with the freshwater
red-colored Audouinella hermannii. In addition, the
pit plugs of A. macrospora were also like those of the
Batrachospermales.
 
This is an image of Chantransia macrospora

Chantransia_zpshsa8nwin.jpg


source: http://www.aquaticinvasions.net/2009/AI_2009_4_4_Kato_etal.pdf


And this is an image of Audouinella

Audouinella_zpsg2caymgl.jpg


Source: http://www.dr-ralf-wagner.de/index-englisch.htm




Personally, with my uneducated eye, I can't make the difference at all.
 
Hi all,
sciencefiction said:
The sequence data clearly show these specimens to be chantransia stages of Batrachospermum taxa.
Click to expand...
I think you've got it, it could well be that the "Black Brush Algae" and "Black Beard Algae", are just the alternation of generations of one species (and presumably really a Chantransia sp.).

I used to work with a <"famous phycologist"> who works with Rhodophyta. I'll send her an email and hopefully she will be able to add to comment.

cheers Darrel
 
@Darrel. Do you have any idea what type mine is looking at the above images?
I haven't change any brightness on contrast on them. I suppose I could have but wanted them unaltered so I can identify this if anyone has an idea...

Here is another pic we took. All pictures are from the edges of an anubias leaf basically. The BBA I have is short and quite black in "real mode". I'll take a picture tomorrow of how it looks normally.

Image2_zpsblfuv0bn.jpg
 
Since the BBA "I breed" :) is black/green type, definitely not red, is it safe to go by the below in order to identify it?....

Plant colour is proposed as the only vegetative character

that can be unequivocally applied to distinguish Audouinella from ‘Chantransia’, bluegreenish
representing “Chantransia” stages and reddish applying to true Audouinella
species (also forming reproductive structures other than monosporangia, e.g. tetrasporangia).

Some isolates of A. pygmaea were proven to be unequivocally ‘Chantransia” stages
owing either to production of juvenile gametophytes or to derivation from carpospores. No

association of the morphology of A. pygmaea was found with any particular species, thus it
should be regarded as a complex involving many species of the Batrachospermales sensu
lato, as is also the case with A. macrospora.We therefore recommend that all blue-greenish
acrochaetioid algae in freshwater habitats be considered as “Chantransia” stages of members

of the Batrachospermales

source: http://www.dzb.ibilce.unesp.br/~orlando/MorphAcroch(Proof).pdf
 
I observe that this BB algea and also hair algea work a litlle parasitic. F.e since the start the Utricularia graminifolia has problems and i noticed 1 patch of this plant being the most infested wuth hair alge. Now i bought also some Lilaepsis Brasiliensis which was the first to show BB i guess it came with it from the shop. Pruned all away.. But lately i added Potamogeton gayi which is rather slow in feeling at home and takes time to astablish from what i read here. Now also show signs of BB since 2 days.. The rest of the plants which all grow ok and are rooting nicely are clean. Like the Enchinidorus showd a bit the first week but is totaly clean since it is rooting and growing. Is that true that algea attack plants in distress earlier then healthy established plants? or is it just a observation by chance i have here?.
 
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