Fun new algae friend. Or foe. Or moss?

[PineSong]

I saw this little muppety-looking guy in my 20g tall this morning. I haven't been at face level with this tank in a week or so due to an injury, it's been pond-view only until today. So I'm not sure how long the muppet has been there or how fast-growing it is, but I think it's super cute.

This tank sits in a window so it does feature some hair algae, or perhaps multiple varieties of hair algae--there are the kind that look like long individual hairs, the kind that look like a green cloud of cotton among the corkscrew val but not attached to anything, and what I call "short hair algae" like the little clump below.  But I've not seen any of these develop branching patterns like the muppet clump.

Anyone know what the muppet is? I really enjoy finding new things in my tanks (when they are not planaria.)

[Theplatymaster]

What i would do is take it out of the tank, put it in an empty seltzer bottle or something like that. Add some ferts, put it by a window and  just observe what happens to it.n

[PineSong]

On 2/5/2023 at 9:46 AM, Theplatymaster said:

What i would do is take it out of the tank, put it in an empty seltzer bottle or something like that. Add some ferts, put it by a window and  just observe what happens to it.n

Oh no. I want to leave it where it is and watch what happens! The tank is right in front of a window, anyway.

I just wondered if anyone knows what it is.

Edited February 5, 2023 by PineSong

[FLFishChik]

It looks like Green Beard Algae. It isn’t particularly harmful to fish, but it might choke out your live plants. 

[DaveO]

I'm with you. Leave it and watch it grow. I really like the branching swoosh look.

Edited February 6, 2023 by DaveO
Can't spell in the early morning!

[nabokovfan87]

It looks like a very crazy type of moss, but I can't say that with any sort of certainty.  Green Beard Algae is an interesting one.  Not sure I've seen a lot of it.

Most of the time it looks like this, long strands, edges then the internal structure of things...


I would lean towards moss or "something else" here.  Might even be some sort of a fungus.  Keep a very close eye. research mosses/fungus and if it spreads, especially in the 7-10 day timeframe, you'd want to remove it and do a good size WC/siphon and clean.

Edit... Yeah I agree with @FLFishChik on the ID.  It's that stuff.
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/images/green_beard_algae.jpg

I would remove it.  Here is a word of caution from another forum:

Quote

But keep all your equipment, and I mean ALL your equipment completely separate from the equipment you use in your other tanks. I mean, buckets, nets, everything- cuz I swear that stuff can jump tanks.

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[PineSong]

On 2/6/2023 at 3:02 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

It looks like a very crazy type of moss, but I can't say that with any sort of certainty.  Green Beard Algae is an interesting one.  Not sure I've seen a lot of it.

Most of the time it looks like this, long strands, edges then the internal structure of things...


I would lean towards moss or "something else" here.  Might even be some sort of a fungus.  Keep a very close eye. research mosses/fungus and if it spreads, especially in the 7-10 day timeframe, you'd want to remove it and do a good size WC/siphon and clean.

Edit... Yeah I agree with @FLFishChik on the ID.  It's that stuff.
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/images/green_beard_algae.jpg

I would remove it.  Here is a word of caution from another forum:

 

Oh, that photo in the link makes it look cute! I wonder how it came in...or what tank conditions have changed to make it flourish now...my dosing potassium, or removing half the fish, or ? I am tracking it. it was in a different spot this morning so I guess shrimp or fish moved it.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/6/2023 at 11:54 AM, PineSong said:

Oh, that photo in the link makes it look cute! I wonder how it came in...or what tank conditions have changed to make it flourish now...my dosing potassium, or removing half the fish, or ? I am tracking it. it was in a different spot this morning so I guess shrimp or fish moved it.

Heavy metals in general do some "fun things" with algae.  Could be.

[The endler guy]

speaking of algae there is one that almost looks like a macro algae! I don't remember the name but it looks like a true plant (yes algae is a plant but i digress) and is fw 

[jwcarlson]

Is green beard algae a real thing?  I pulled a huge mass of what I have just been calling hair algae off of pothos roots on one of my plants and kind of balled it up and put it in another tank that's cycling.  But it's not "soft" like hair algae, it's got some bristle to it.  I actually like the way it looks which is part of the reason I just let it grow.  Reminds me of one of those moss balls, but I've never actually had one of those or touched one.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 2/5/2023 at 8:42 AM, PineSong said:

So I'm not sure how long the muppet has been there or how fast-growing it is, but I think it's super cute.

A microscope photo would go a long way to a closer identification, but if I had to guess, I would guess something in the Chaetophoraceae like a Stigeoclonium species.  The branching pattern could suggest something in the Cladophoraceae like a Cladophora species, but those tend to be finer and wispier in FW species, in my experience.  Yours looks a bit coarser which is why I'm leaning toward the former guess.  But this is just a guess.  Whatever it is, I agree it is a very cool looking algae!  What a nice discovery upon feeling better!

On 2/6/2023 at 2:42 PM, jwcarlson said:

s green beard algae a real thing?

I came across what I would call "Green Beard Algae" once at a LFS.  It was beautiful!  It had a dark aspect to it like the regular Audouinella BBA, but with the ends being almost metallic green like the band in the right light on a neon green tetra.  The owner game me some for free, but it never made it in the tank I introduced it to.  I would have taken an entire tank covered in that stuff! 

[PineSong]

An update: 5-6 weeks later the muppet looks exactly the same size. It gets moved around the front of the tank by fish/shrimp traffic and water changes, I guess, because it is rarely in the same place 2 days in a row.

Hard to get a photo of it today because that tank is in desperate need of yardwork, but here it is; I think it's safe to conclude that at this rate it won't be choking anything out for quite some time. 

[rockfisher]

On 3/17/2023 at 4:04 PM, PineSong said:

An update: 5-6 weeks later the muppet looks exactly the same size. It gets moved around the front of the tank by fish/shrimp traffic and water changes, I guess, because it is rarely in the same place 2 days in a row.

Hard to get a photo of it today because that tank is in desperate need of yardwork, but here it is; I think it's safe to conclude that at this rate it won't be choking anything out for quite some time. 

It a type of algae. It tends to grow very slow. I posted some videos of the same algae growing on a large piece of drift wood. My fish especially discus liked to graze on it. It’s pretty harm less. I wish I had it back in my tank.

[Tanked]

In my project tank, one or more of the bladder snails is wearing a muppet hairpiece similar to the second photo.  

[BM3]

I think it’s an algae. I’ve had it pop up in my tank before. It really pretty! When it grows in a high flow area it moves beautifully. My shrimp loved it.