What is this algae?

[The Masked Shadow]

Someone on another forum posted up this pic. Nobody has seen anything like it. Do you know what it is?

description:

“They vary in size up to about 10 mm across the whole ball , they are light grey/white with a black bit in the centre where they adhere to the glass they have like a suction type base and the hairs wave about but the don’t move individually the are impossible to get off plants and have killed all the leaves they are on, but can be scraped off the glass”

The original thread is in Planted Tank Forum:

Grey tufts all over plants and glass

Help what is this and how do I get rid? Where did it come from

www.fishforums.net

 

[Deadeye]

Looks more like a mold to me.

 

[A201]

Not sure what it is, but maybe stocking certain varieties of algae eating fish might get rid of it.
Black Molly, Rubber lip Pleco or Siamese Algae eater.
Good luck.

 

[1 2many]

Not 100% certain on this one, but after some quick research it might be something called Beard Algae. (Aka brush algae.) If the Co2 levels in your tank are unbalanced that can cause this to grow. Also, if you recently bought new plants they could’ve been contaminated with it at the store it was purchased from. A Siamese Algae eater should be able to clean it up.
Good luck! Hope this helps!

 

[esoxlucius]

The fact that it has a foot to attach itself to the glass makes it almost anenome like. The best I can offer is aiptasia, a saltwater anemone that, by all accounts, can live in a broad range of conditions. Whatever it is it's a strange one.

 

[kno4te]

Looks like tufts of hair algae.

 

[Deadeye]

The fact that it has a foot to attach itself to the glass makes it almost anenome like. The best I can offer is aiptasia, a saltwater anemone that, by all accounts, can live in a broad range of conditions. Whatever it is it's a strange one.

Freshwater aptasia...I wouldn’t even be surprised.
That said, aptasia is usually brown or red.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

There are 2 Chinese algae eaters In there. Could it be some kind of fungus that has progressed overtime?

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Freshwater aptasia...I wouldn’t even be surprised.
That said, aptasia is usually brown or red.

My aiptasia was always pretty clear.

But that's just a green hair algae most start off in little spots like that until they build up more, but that is a pretty dramatic picture of it.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Here are all of the descriptions of it:

“It’s everywhere thousands of them it’s killed all the leaves on my Amazon swords and it’s stuck real well to the glass.“

”It’s definitely white, it’s only taken about 6 weeks to get to this stage, I initially spotted this and removed about 30 or so but they’re difficult to remove, I kept the light off and covered the tank for a week I also have 4 2 inch Chinese Alfie eaters but it’s so voracious it’s happened in a matter of a few weeks”

“They vary in size up to about 10 mm across the whole ball , they are light grey/white with a black bit in the centre wherel they adhere to the glass they have like a suction type base and the hairs wave about but the don’t move individually the are impossible to get off plants and have killed all the leaves they are on, but can be scraped off the glass”

The guy has been keeping fish for over 40 years, and hasn’t seen anything like it. He sent a picture to a freshwater biology team and is waiting to here back. A whole bunch of people want some of that algae to grow lol. My first thought was some kind of very large hydra algae.