Another ID please.

[rynon]

I'll just let the picture do it's job. I have no clue on what this is or where it came from. Here you go. Thanks.

[Janice12]

Red bubble algae. Botryocladia.

[rynon]

That's what I thought......at first. I compared pictures of this to that and it's not the same. These are not bubbles, they grow like flower petals. The only bubbles are inside of the petal. So, unless there is more than one growth form of that bubble algae, this is not it. I looked on www.algaebase.org, and can't find this.

[Janice12]

Ooooh I see, It looked like bubbles to me, sorry.

[rynon]

No problem, apparently this is not easy to ID? I can't find it on anything. New question, we know it's red, any idea of what "might" eat it.....something small, it's a biocube.

[graveyardworm]

Can you post a shot of the algae from a bit further back, showing it growth form? A good photo of it growing in the tank on th LR might be more helpful.

[rynon]

Sure can, lights are off so I hope this helps? It's very scrubby...low growing. The LFS I work at has this as well, it's worse there. Anyway, here's the picture.

[graveyardworm]

I have seen very similar stuff growing in local aquarists tanks. I always thought it looked very similar to Dictyota only red. The one source I have for red dictyota really doesnt look quite the same though, and I dont have a species name for red dictyota.

[LeslieH]

In one of my books there's a picture that looks very similar to this which is called Nitophyllum sp. It's described as being a small plant with oval blades, extremely thin, that grows on other plants or rocks. the dark patches are the reproductive structures.

The blade shape among species of Nitophyllum varies a lot - none of the ones posted on the web that I could find are the same shape.

[graveyardworm]

I also looked Nitophylum but nothing I could find resembled the growth in the pics nor the stuff I've seen in local tanks. Also all the pics I could find were of a rather large growing alga not small individual ones. I also went through the database at algaebase looking at the nitophylum but couldnt find a match. Aside from that Its anyones guess. It is a fairly common hitchhiker in reeftanks though so there must some info out there. Maybe a search through the Marine plants forum for red dictyota will turn something up, I'm sure Sarah must've commented on it atleast once.

[graveyardworm]

Just had an idea, check the Algae slideshow in RK mag, and take a close look at the red one listed as Fauchea sp. Cant be positive but I think that may be your guy.

[graveyardworm]

Check this out. http://www.mbari.org/staff/conn/bota...site/index.htm

[LeslieH]

I know, it was annoying that none of the web pictures matched rynon's pics or the one in my South Pacific algae book by Littler & Littler. However, the Nitophyllum in their book is a much closer match than Fauchea or anything else I could find, even the reproductive structures matched. It was listed as Nitophyllum sp. which means that it's an undescribed species (or that they couldn't identify it) and therefore not likely to be on any website.

[rynon]

Wow guys, thanks a LOT! Thanks for doing all that research, at least now I have some ideas. I'll take a look at some of the links posted and see if anything seems to fit. I really appreciate it a lot.

[rynon]

After copying and pasting the possible names of this algae, I'm with you guys. It does not look like Fauchea (or at least the pictures I've found). It does look similar to Nitophyllum but finding images of this algae was difficult. You are WAY ahead of me when it comes to finding a possible ID on algae. I would have never figured this out by myself. I suppose any fish or invert that likes red algae would approve of this. My selection is rather limited with a BioCube but I may just let it grow and see if it becomes a major issue. Thanks for all your help! I'll have to link this to my favorites, I'll never remember the name of this algae .