Dinoflagellates, algae, bacteria?

[Boga]

Easy to blow it off with the turkey baster. Almost the same texture as ciano, but growing in clusters, mainly in low flow areas. Colour is white/greenish, translucent.
Thanks.

 

[Poseidon]

Re: Dinoflagellates?

No those don't look like any Dino's I've ever experienced.
Almost like a sponge or...?

 

[Boga]

Re: Dinoflagellates?

Hmm? They are waving in the flow. Sometimes they cover the substrate, easy to remove when cleaning.

 

[Salty Cracker]

Re: Dinoflagellates?

possibly cotton candy algae.  Usually something that the tank just takes care of itself after a while, however mexican turbo snails seem to eat the stuff. 

 

[Boga]

The cotton algae appears to have a hairy structure. I am trying to see any algae filaments, or sort of ..., but I can't. I've seen other descriptive information about bacterial blooms, but again nothing to show a clear picture of what I have on my rocks.

 

[Boga]

I was able to study little bit the "thing" using a microscope with magnifications up to 1000x. The scope was not ideal for biological samples, but anyway I was able to see the cells in the sample. The sample looked more like a gelatin under microscope and during handling.

I attached two pictures. The pic's don't show fine details, but were the best I could do.

The cells are very similar to what is shown in multiple articles on internet. The shape, description, size (5 to 8 microns) are similar to references in the following links (and many more). If you google "Symbiodinium" or "zooxanthellae" you will get lots of better pictures of whatever I saw under microscope.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/rs/feature/ on Figure 2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiodinium on Figures 1, 10 and 12
http://genome.wustl.edu/genomes/detail/symbiodinium-sp/
http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/coral/coral3.htm

If identification is correct, then can Symbiodinium live alone without being hosted in a coral and form super colonies? Like the one shown in my very first post?
If ID is not quite correct, then what it could be?

Any comments are appreciated because I am out of ideas. 

 

[curiousphil]

Not sure about your microscope images but I'm with Salty on the original picture looking like a sponge, I have a similar sponge in my tank that came in on a frag and has gradually migrated away from it.

 

[Boga]

Not sure about your microscope images but I'm with Salty on the original picture looking like a sponge, I have a similar sponge in my tank that came in on a frag and has gradually migrated away from it.

I am trying to upload a video. Hope it works. I think it would be better than a picture.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUBkr7S9qN0[/youtube]

 

[davesolo29]

Looks like a sponge to me.  I have never had them in my display but had lots in my sump at one point.  Can't tell you if it's good or bad for sure or how to get rid of them.  I threw them all out after a bad hair algae bloom.


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[harleymike]

Looks like sponge and some flat worms in there too.

 

[pulpfiction1]

i dont think its a sponge,does look like some form of dinos to me, just never seen it that colour,you can blow it off with a baster,any sponge ive seen adhere quite securely to the rock

 

[unibob]

i dont think its a sponge,does look like some form of dinos to me, just never seen it that colour,you can blow it off with a baster,any sponge ive seen adhere quite securely to the rock

Yea any healthy sponge won't blow off with a turkey baster, and whatever this seems to be is flourishing. I think it's some sort of bacteria bloom or a mutation of Dino's do too a bacteria bloom.

 

[Boga]

Thanks to vdubz, I was able to get my hands on a sample of dinos. In size they were bigger cells compared to what I have (8-10 x bigger). I found clear pictures on internet showing his dinoflagellate type (probably he has Gymnodinium). Some of them were motile. All pictures were taken at 500x microscope magnification.

 

[Reef Hero]

Is there any evidence that proves removing the silica from water will starve the Dino's?? I am certain I have read this....


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[Boga]

Is there any evidence that proves removing the silica from water will starve the Dino's?? I am certain I have read this....


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Some dino's use silica to buid their capsule (case). Some dino's don't have that hard shell, so I guess those will remain unaffected. Diatoms are good silica eaters, for the same reason.

 

[Reef Hero]

Yea I was going to say that I heard both diatoms and Dino's like silica...


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[Boga]

I will read more about dinoflagellates and silica. Actually I have added some crushed coral in my tank. Couple months ago. It may or may not contain silica. I expected a diatom bloom; not dino's.