Please help to ID

[Bengalcats888]

Hi,

I have some clear stuff that has spread every where on the glass walls. I clean off what I can during water changes but it keeps coming back.
Trying to understand what it is and if it is harmless.
I have a brackish water tank with small green spotter puffer. This stuff might have been introduced when I fed frozen krill.

Photos are magnified view.

 

[kno4te]

Had a similar appearance to something a while ago that was ID’d as green spot algae. But not completely sure.

 

[FJB]

Not an algae, but an animal.
I believe it is either a colonial tunicate (as in sea squirts, but colonial films, not solitary ascidians), or a colonial bryozoan (again, film-like). Those belong in two different animal Phyla (plural of Phylum), but can look remarkably similar to the untrained eye, and when seen in just general photos.
Neither would be detrimental to the fish, but can grow uncontralobly and become unsightly if left to its own. They are both filter feeders, preying on small stuff in the water column.
It should be easy to control mechanically just like scrapping it off glasses and other surfaces. However, it should be removed once scrapped, as if left to rot, it will affect water quality fairly quickly.
Good luck!

 

[Bengalcats888]

Thanks.

I will try to get some closer up photos with my cheap microscope.

Glad it is not nasty hydroids.

 

[Bengalcats888]

Here are some more photos. It looks like a flower, multiple stems with tulip like buds. When you view the aquarium glass, they are almost clear, no color to them.
Off white color. They multiple super fast. Gotta do more cleaning, some areas hard to reach.

 

[Bengalcats888]

Googling, it looks very similiar to hydroids which if it is, I’m screwed. I took down saltwater tanks before due to hydroids, one reason I quit saltwater hobby.

Tunicate or byrozoan are very large? Compared to this microscopic thing. Green Spot algae I googled, looks like small green spots under the microscope.

 

[Bengalcats888]

Any ideas what it might be???

 

[FJB]

Bryozoans (colonies) come in different sizes and there are different growth forms, such as arborescent (sticking out from a stalk), or laminar, as what you have.
I do not know for sure what you have, but my own belief (and to my own fault if wrong), I would say bryozoan colonies. Again, not harmful, just unsightly.

 

[Bengalcats888]

Thank you.

Amazing how many types there are and not all logged even with current technology.

 

[FJB]

Hi B Bengalcats888 -
I still don't know for sure what your 'colonies' are, but I found something recent that makes me suspect that my guess/id was partially in error. I now believe what you have belongs in yet another invertebrate animal Phylum - The Rotifera. The images attached of Bdelloid Rotifers look remarkably similar to the microscope images you posted.
I stated that I thought they were colonial. If they are indeed rotifers, then they are not and what you have are rapidly reproducing individuals, such that we see groups of them. What is crazy cool of these beasts is that their only known means of reproduction is by parthenogenesis; while a number of plants and animals can do that, usually that is a facultative condition of some more frequently sexually reproducing beasts. In bdelloid rotifers, it is instead the ONLY known means of reproduction. In fact, no known male bdelloid rotifers are known, and are thought not to exist. At some point they may have gotten rid of that limiting need for two genders. Another crazy thing about them is in their genome includes genes 'taken' from a variety of other co-inhabitants, including bacteria, plants and animals! How crazy is that!
I did not know of bdelloid rotifers in aquaria, although I have seen them in cultures in microbiology labs.
Sooo, what you have is way, way cool! (but I understand you need to get rid of them). It may be a good idea to take lots of pictures before doing so.
Check out the images attached and do tell us if you agree they look suspiciously similar. Otherwise I am going crazy in my old age.... which I consider possible as well.