The Mysterious Red Leaves

[Jan]

Post a query specifically about "Nemastoma macroalgae" and you will get detailed information about it. The red macro they talk about is red gracilaria and the like. The more leafy (for lack of better term) ones.

 

Thanks for the idea of Wetwebmedia, it helped clear up a few things about how to care for it. It also said that red alga in general seem to overrun tanks, but all the pictures of nemastoma I've seen show it growing just up like branches, not so much out like a field like wetweb says it does...

[WaterDog]

Thanks everyone for the help in identifying these...Hopefully if it growns larger and does well I can frag it.

[treesprite]

This might be the type of macro to put on SWAP, given that it is apparently a somewhat prized item rather than just filter media.

[WaterDog]

This might be the type of macro to put on SWAP, given that it is apparently a somewhat prized item rather than just filter media.

 

I'm still kind of a newbie at this so forgive me when I ask what's SWAP?

[Jan]

Swap is great! Really brilliant idea. Read about it here or go directly to the swap forum http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8617

 

I'm still kind of a newbie at this so forgive me when I ask what's SWAP?

[WaterDog]

Swap is great! Really brilliant idea. Read about it here or go directly to the swap forum http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8617

 

Sounds great...Also confusing but I think I should be able to get used to it. I noticed in the explanation thread it was only corals though...

[treesprite]

Sounds great...Also confusing but I think I should be able to get used to it. I noticed in the explanation thread it was only corals though...

Livestock that can be "fragged" and grown out.... there's already dragons breath macro on there, and I think there was rotifer culture on there. The idea of SWAP is, a person gives something for free with the understanding that if he or she should ever lose his original coral, the SWAP recipient would give back a grag from the one that was given and grown out in the recipients tank. In short, coral insurance.

[treesprite]

Do you have an update photo?

Here's mine:

 

[gmubeach]

wow its pretty much better then the culerpa I had:( tear tear!

[treesprite]

wow its pretty much better then the culerpa I had:( tear tear!

This stuff actually I don't thing would work well in a refugium - when I put mine in there a long time ago, it died. This little rock was for over a year - I took the rock out to put palys on it. After that, the rock now w/palys on it, was in the tank for maybe 6 months with no sign of this stuff. Then I put the rock up in front of my overflow way up near the top of my tank where flow is super high and light extremely high - suddenly this stuff sprang up again (I have a little shelf in my tank, which is the bottom of my external overflow which extends into the tank several inches).

[WaterDog]

Yeah I tried putting it in my refugium...I think it's just providing nutrients for the chaeto...

As for the update here it is, there are actually two types though so it's somewhat confusing

Type 1:

Type 2:

[treesprite]

Where do you have it in the tank? Also, it looks really pale in the picture - is it just the camera making it look that way, or is it really that pale?

[WaterDog]

Where do you have it in the tank? Also, it looks really pale in the picture - is it just the camera making it look that way, or is it really that pale?

 

The 1st type is in the upper middle, the 2nd type is probably on the rock closest to the top. And it isn't that pale, it was the camera.

[treesprite]

The 1st type is in the upper middle, the 2nd type is probably on the rock closest to the top. And it isn't that pale, it was the camera.

 

I have no idea what that stringy-looking one is. Is the nematosa one in high flow?

[WaterDog]

I have no idea what that stringy-looking one is. Is the nematosa one in high flow?

Relatively, the stronger of the two powerheads is blowing towards it. I was thinking the stringy type might just be nemastoma, except with maybe a mutation?

[treesprite]

I used to have a pack of freeze-dried red algae that I can't remember the name of, that looked kind of like your stingy stuff.

 

Oh, when I had a tang, it would not eat the nematosa, so when I put a tang in the 75g I probably won't have to worry about it. My cherub angel doesn't try to eat it either, but eats other algae.

[Jan]

I'd really like a frag of one of these for my macro tank. LMK if either of you decide to frag.

[WaterDog]

I used to have a pack of freeze-dried red algae that I can't remember the name of, that looked kind of like your stingy stuff.

Do you remember where you bought it from? I might decide to hunt it down in the store to figure out what it is.

 

I'd really like a frag of one of these for my macro tank. LMK if either of you decide to frag.

Once they get big enough...and once i figure out how to frag things...

[Jan]

I frag things like this that grow on the surface on a rock like xenia with a pair of bone cutters. I chip away at the rock under the frags. I do it all the time with xenia and shrooms because they are a PITA to mount. It usually only takes one attempt.

 

I'd be happy to show you how, if you're not too far away.

[treesprite]

I've already promised the smaller of the two stalks in the pic to Rob. I have a 3rd very tiny stalk, but I can't cut it from the rock without cutting into palys (it's next to my fingertip in the pic, hard to see).

 

This stuff does not easily attach to things, so I think the best way to handle it, is to cut or break the rock if you have more than one stalk of it.

Edited February 11, 2010 by treesprite