Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: fcmf on May 27, 2020, 09:10:49 PM

Title: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: fcmf on May 27, 2020, 09:10:49 PM
Anyone know what this is growing on the wood, out of interest? It sort of looks like those cotton/fungus things that float around outside, or even like what grows on an uneaten morsel of food in the fishtank - except for that it's bright green. I've never seen this before in the tank. NB image is 4x the size - for context, those white dots that look like balls are actually nerite snail eggs.

Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: Littlefish on May 27, 2020, 09:28:16 PM
It looks a bit like a small patch of green hair algae, but I thought that algae was a fast grower & would cover more than just a small area like that.
Hmmm, interesting.
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: fcmf on May 27, 2020, 09:32:17 PM
Thanks - does indeed look like photos of that. The female nerite snail has been spending a lot of time on the wood lately (as you can deduce from the eggs),  and it's altogether possible she may have munched sections of the growing green-hair algae before it was visible to the human eye but perhaps she didn't go over this particular section.
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: Hampalong on May 28, 2020, 10:33:20 AM
I’d guess it’s a species of Cladophora (Blanketweed). Looks nice actually...
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: Sue on May 28, 2020, 11:02:07 AM
I've got bits of that in my tank. It looks pretty so I just leave it there. Eventually it just falls off in my tank.
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: fcmf on May 28, 2020, 04:30:07 PM
Great; thanks, folks.   :cheers:  I'll leave it be and see if any more develops too.
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: Hampalong on May 28, 2020, 05:10:31 PM
(If I’m right...)

“Cladophora is a branching, green filamentous alga, that forms a moss like structure. This algae doesn't appear to be slimy. Threads are very strong and very thin. It grows on rocks and submersed wood exposed to direct light, and in extreme cases will grow on plants also. Usually it tends to stay on one spot, which makes it easy to remove. Comb it and dose more CO2. In a case where Cladophora takes over the grassy plants, mow the plants like the lawn. No algae eater is known to eat this kind of alga”

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_freshwater_algae.php
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: jaypeecee on May 28, 2020, 07:12:52 PM
Hi Folks,

I'm not sure that it is Cladophora as the item shown in the photograph does not appear to be branching. Instead, it looks to me like very short blades of grass. I'm not suggesting that it is grass, by the way. I don't know what it is but I could ask around. It is very attractive, isn't it? Such a rich, lush green.

JPC
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: Matt on May 31, 2020, 06:23:06 AM
Is it hard to remove? It looks like green beard algae to me. Sorry I’ve not been on the forum in a few days...
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: fcmf on May 31, 2020, 06:58:31 PM
I have no idea whether it's hard to remove but, in my scrubbing of the plant during the standard water change the other day, I almost removed it by accident - but thankfully it's still intact. As others have said, it is pretty - and it's not often that any foliage in my tank can be described as 'lush' so I'll enjoy it while it's there.  ;D
Title: Re: Green 'thing' growing on wood - a fungus?
Post by: fcmf on June 02, 2020, 06:12:30 PM
I meant to say that a green moss ball resided immediately beside the section of wood that has sprouted this green 'thing', if that has any bearing on its identification (and might indeed suggest it is Cladophora). I see that another moss ball has made contact with another section of the wood, so it will be interesting to see if another tuft sprouts.