red calcareous algae

[mastahluong]

I've got what I believe is a red calcareous algae that I've never seen before or come across during my time in this hobby. Very stiff branching algae, growth tips are light pink while the body is red/dark red. It's got concentric circles which leads me to believe it's calcareous. It's quite small right now so these were the best pictures I could take.

 

Click for larger pics:

 

 

 

any ideas?

[roland36]

I have an idea... let it grow it looks neat!

[yoshii]

I think it's called galaxea or something that sounds like galaxy..

 

Very nice macro, it gets a darker red under intense lighting (like MH) but will stay a bright pink under lower/mod lighting

[mastahluong]

I have an idea... let it grow it looks neat!

Hopefully it'll grow. I've had that piece of live rock in my tank for over a year and now something finally pops up from it.

 

I think it's called galaxea or something that sounds like galaxy..

 

Very nice macro, it gets a darker red under intense lighting (like MH) but will stay a bright pink under lower/mod lighting

 

I can't find any info on said "galaxy algae", maybe I'm just not spelling it right?

[yoshii]

I can't find any info on said "galaxy algae", maybe I'm just not spelling it right?

Try Pink Galaxy?

 

I think seahorsedreams had a bit in one of her tanks, idk if she still has it though

[mastahluong]

I think I've found it now, google pictures look just like it too.

 

Galaxaura rugosa

 

Thanks Yoshii, couldn't have done it with out your lead!

[Mkus]

I think I've found it now, google pictures look just like it too.

 

Galaxaura rugosa

 

Thanks Yoshii, couldn't have done it with out your lead!

I have the same growing all over one of my rocks it's very cool growing in layers...

[yoshii]

I think I've found it now, google pictures look just like it too.

 

Galaxaura rugosa

 

Thanks Yoshii, couldn't have done it with out your lead!

Np

 

It's a beautiful macro, pods like it too(when it gets bigger)

[johnmaloney]

too young to tell now, when it grows in it should develop some features. It isn't pink galaxy, but it should look cool when it grows in. keep us posted!

[mastahluong]

too young to tell now, when it grows in it should develop some features. It isn't pink galaxy, but it should look cool when it grows in. keep us posted!

Ok cool, I'll keep this updated as it goes along. Just curious John, what features does pink galaxy have? Like is there a main defining feature I should be looking for?

[johnmaloney]

as it grows you will want to look at the joints, pink galaxy should have a flexible joint where it has branched off from the main stalk. (well all the joints should be flexible, but that is the only branching you have so far, it doesn't seem to be jointed from the picture). Most of the Jania spp. and Amhpiroa spp. are jointed too, so it is hard to tell this early...the irregular branching seems more like it could be Tricleocarpa cylindrica than a Galaxaura but it looks stiffer... hard to tell lots of species that have stiff red branches with whorls and dichotomous branching...still too young yet I think...what ocean is it from?

[mastahluong]

Honestly the live rock has been in my tank for over a year now and I don't remember where that rock came from. It's funny that something like this is just now growing, maybe a small portion came off a frag that I had put in?

 

The only stuff I had hitch hike into my tank from rock was that nasty GHA. That hair algae that I sent you some a while ago has been gone for over 6 months now (still seemed like nothing touched it) I just got over that hump with more water changes and pulling it out every water change.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=230523&hl=

[mastahluong]

So the algae has been growing nicely and I was going to journal the growth of it but all of a sudden my money cowrie decides that it's a nice treat..... I removed the cowrie but about 50% of it is gone. It should come back but it just kinda sucks cause it was looking nice. Not sure but with the sections the cowrie tore open, it's hollow inside the tiny tubes. Once the algae makes a recovery I'll post some pics.

[johnmaloney]

Honestly the live rock has been in my tank for over a year now and I don't remember where that rock came from. It's funny that something like this is just now growing, maybe a small portion came off a frag that I had put in?

 

The only stuff I had hitch hike into my tank from rock was that nasty GHA. That hair algae that I sent you some a while ago has been gone for over 6 months now (still seemed like nothing touched it) I just got over that hump with more water changes and pulling it out every water change.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=230523&hl=

 

 

I think the ceriths eat that stuff, they are nocturnal it may have happened at night. Hermits did for sure I think that is what I tested it on, but the thing with algae in the mail is sometimes the cell walls take damage making it edible to critters who would otherwise lack the rasping power....

 

Could have been a spore that settled, or maybe it lay dormant. I am willing to believe that algae can lay dormant for a year. Each year we see the same species totally removed from an area just to find them back again next year. I think that is a sign of some dormancy...other species will live in that range, but it is the species that lived in that spot the year before that tend to take up residence.

 

Semi-related, I recently got red grape (botryocladia occidentalis) to settled from spores, it took them 4+ months to get to tiny sprouts from initial sporolation, and that is a pretty aggressive species. Could have just been a delayed growth. Needreefunds found has a good thread/contest tank about some things that popped up on his LR months later....maybe your LR is just beginning to show?

 

Tricleocarpa cylindrica is hollow inside,but still I am just guessing from FL macros I have seen, no experience with the Pacific Ocean. Pink Galaxy is also, so maybe it just doesn't form the joints until later. I haven't seen one that young so close up before, so maybe that is a feature that develops with age. Hopefully it recovers. Can't say I blame the money cowrie, I wouldn't eat GHA when you have some red licorice looking algae in there. Good thing you caught him in time though, that would have been a shame.

 

If it is a globular algae be careful for pods getting inside and taking up...they eat them from the inside out sometimes, those are the fleshy globulars though, like Halymenia elongata, and Sciania complanata, if it is calcified it won't fall into this category, it probably is, but I already typed all this and I couldn't bring myself to erase it.

[bbales]

could also be amphiroa =)