!!!! Need Quick Reply!!! -- Hair Algae Going Sexual???

[Flipper1]

Does green hair algae go sexual? I just turned my head a few minutes ago and saw a big cloud of microscopic particles rising from a corner of my nano. At first I thought it was the dotty stirring up sand from a passageway under a rock, but then I saw another blast when he was nowhere near that spot. Then I noticed that all the HA growing on my turbo snail (who we affectionately call Frank Beard), is suddenly thin, bright white, and you can see the snail's shell again through it. He was right in the same spot the clouds originated. I just saw another burst while typing this. Is the stuff going sexual? Is this releasing spores? What's in order to control this, and how can it be prevented. Is the tank going to be in trouble??? Thanks!!!

[duec22]

Never heard of it going sexual....get some filter floss if you don't already have some in the tank to help get it out of the water column.

[Flipper1]

Thanks. I don't have a filter at my immediate disposal, though. Just a protein skimmer on the tank. I'm hoping that catches whatever I'm looking at...

[jjmg]

Keep an eye on your other snails and see if they are releasing the same stuff. They may just be spawning. Unless you have a lot of snails it shouldn't be a problem.

I would start getting some water ready for a water change, just in case things start looking bad.

[Flipper1]

Just the one turbo in the tank. However, I don't think he's spawning, not that I know about such things. It's just that all the hair algae on his shell turned bleach-white in a matter of 5 minutes...

[jdieck]

It might just have been scared and turn pale?...

Now seriously, if you have any rock toward that corner of the tank you might have a boring critter. Some boring snails and specially a mantis shrimp may show the same white dust in burst when boring trough the rock. Just a guess.