New Phylum?

Galilean · #1 08/01/2006, 03:32 PM

New Phylum?

I have had for at least 3 years that I've noticed a reproducing (presumably) population of bizarre organisms living in various reef aquariums. If I did not see them move I would think they were some kind of plant. My father taught biology for 25 + years and raised me in a house full for aquariums of all kinds. Also I worked in retail sales of marine flora and fauna for several years so I have personal experience with all common and most unusual types of small sea creatures. Nonetheless, I can't even determine what general kind of creature this might be much less specifically identify it. I have four types of spaghetti worms, and I am certain it is not a spaghetti worm. I have many other varieties of worms, nutibranchs, basket stars, and tiny brittle stars, serpent stars, and comet stars. I do not believe that it is any type of echinoderm because it does not have a central disk. I do not think it is any type of worm or nutibranch because it does not have a central column and is asymmetric. My best guess is that it is some kind of amoeba, although I haven’t been able to find any amoebas that have a similar structure and very few that are this large.

Please carefully read my description (below) if trying to identify it. You should be able to zoom in on a photo viewer and make out some of the white branches. I’m sorry this is the best photo I have so far. I haven’t got a microscope yet, but hopefully I will have one next time I see one of these creatures. I have only found one five times in the last three years.

These creatures appear to live in the substrate. The creatures rarely will climb up onto the glass sides of the aquarium so they can be easily seen. I have always seen them during the day, but I don't spend near as much time looking at night.

Their body does not have a central disk or column but rather is dendritic. There is a much thicker, red branching portion of the body. Mostly, but not exclusively, at the tips of these thick red branches are much thinner and longer white branches. The white portions of a branch do not appear to split into any smaller branches, but I haven't seen it under the microscope yet. The one of which I have a picture has maybe 9 to 18 red branches depending on how you count them. (Since there is not a definite center you can't establish what branches off of what.) Many white branches come from each red branch, but white branches proceeding from the tips of red branches are much longer. The overall diameter of the red branches is about 4-5 mm. The overall diameter of the white branches is about 15-20 mm. The red branches are maybe 0.3-0.5 mm thick while the white branches are maybe 0.02-0.05mm thick.

The creatures appear to move by sliding the branches along the surface. I have never seen them detach from the surface. This creature appears flat rather than three dimensional (it is very thin). They move very slowly requiring several hours to move a few centimeters. They are too small for me to determine what they eat, but they do not leave a perceptible grazing pattern in the algae they move over like so many other creatures. The one in the picture was eaten by a Mexican turbo snail before it could return to the substrate. I have not seen anything else eat them.

(picture posted in the microphotography section)

poedag · #2 08/01/2006, 03:49 PM

wow, thats a new one to me. i'll pass the picture around the Marine science dept and see what i can come up with.

Galilean · #3 08/02/2006, 10:42 AM

http://www.cushmanfoundation.org/aw...s/sabbatini.pdf

It may be a foraminiferan somewhat like those in this article. The red portion would be the test (shell) and the white filaments extending from it would be the psuedopodia. I will buy a better camera sooner or later. The only still puzzling is that the red branchs are flexible, and I was under the impression that the test was a ridgid structure.

I have also added a second picture of my foraminiferan with an orchid dottyback so you can see how big it is.

el chupacabra · #4 08/02/2006, 01:07 PM

I had something that looked like that in my tank before I cleaned it last month. Never really paid much attention to them. They looked stationary to me. I never saw them move They would just sit somewhere for days or weeks then one day I would walk in and look where one had been and it would just be gone. The ones in my tank were bright red, branches about half and inch long. Probably was a different organism.

poedag · #5 08/02/2006, 01:39 PM

So i spoke to several marine researchers here and they are all stumped! if there is any way for you to collect a specimine and send it to me, they would LOVE to look at one under a scope and figure out what it is. keep me posted, -

overgrownaquatics · #6 08/04/2006, 08:00 PM

I have these as well and have always assumed that they were Foraminiferans. I see them frequently, and they appear to grow on the glass to a diameter of about 1 inch and then slowly disintegrate over a week or so. I've never seen them move, but they do change patterns of branches day to day.

Galilean · #7 08/07/2006, 12:44 PM

What do you mean by "disintegrate"? Do you notice pieces of them missing? Maybe they transform into a free swimming phase of life and leave the shell behind. Do you find empty shells (no white branches)? The few I have seen seem to be able to move "rapidly" (maybe a cm/hour) but usually they just rearrange branches as you describe.

You say they “grow on the glass.” How fast do they grow? I’ve only seen five. The ones I saw were already macroscopic. The red branches (test) ranged from 5mm to 2 cm and the white branches (pseudopodia) were much longer. I watched one climb from the substrate to the top of a ten gallon over the course of a couple days.