Articulated Coralline

lillibirdy

lillibirdy

Member
I was just wondering how many of you have this interesting branching upright coralline in your reef tanks?
I have been noticing some of my coralline growing tiny branches instead of flat and spreading. I did a search but no hits, but online found some info and pics. It is kinda cool, but I wonder how common this is in aquariums cause I haven't read about it on forums. I tried to get a pic, but my digital is junk....
KathyW
 
lillibirdy

lillibirdy

Member
My calcium levels in that FOWLR tank have been 460-480 till I just switched salt and it went up.
I sure hope other answer this I am very curious about this in peoples reefs. Is it fragile and brittle or is it sturdy... This rock had some very dark spots on it when I bought it, not light red, but very dark. I asked the LFS guy if it was coralline and he said no, lol, but yep, they are all growing, and are darker than my regular flat red coralline.
KathyW
 
druluv

druluv

Member
Originally Posted by lillibirdy
My calcium levels in that FOWLR tank have been 460-480 till I just switched salt and it went up.
I sure hope other answer this I am very curious about this in peoples reefs. Is it fragile and brittle or is it sturdy... This rock had some very dark spots on it when I bought it, not light red, but very dark. I asked the LFS guy if it was coralline and he said no, lol, but yep, they are all growing, and are darker than my regular flat red coralline.
KathyW
You need to sell that, would ship a couple of scrapings for me :jumping:
 
lillibirdy

lillibirdy

Member
LOL, Man, If they looked anything like the pics Oceana posted I would gladly share, but at the moment they are microscopic little things, the tallest one has two little sticks about the size of a pencil lead 1/4 inch tall, but one next to it is a lot bigger spot, and I can see at least 5 pencil leads begining to pop up in a bunch. I want to touch it, but I am am afraid to break it. This stuff seems to be growing faster than the other flat coralline too. The ONE rock that it came on seems like it is going to have a lot of it on it (based on all the spots that are begining to swell up), so maybe in 6 months, or a yr, it will begin to look like the pics...very interesting stuff. I don't even have any regular coralline on my glass yet, and rocks barely begining to spread purple and red, and so this little surprise is way fun! I am going to go back to the LFS and see if he has anymore of that stuff. Tell him what those dead spots that "aren't coralline" are doing.....lol.
When it gets bigger, how can I encourage it to go to the other side of tank too. When you say scrapings, do you have to do anything to them to get them where you want them to grow?
KathyW
 
oceana

oceana

Active Member
ya know what i'm thinking.
do these little redish purple growths have several in an area and all grow up about 2or 3 mm off the rock with a few little points on each??
if so that is not coraline. they are very common in SW tanks but not coralline. i cant recall the name right now but i'll take pics of ours in a few min and post them for that.
they wont get much bigger then the the tip of a a pen.
i'll look for them and post back. i'm guessing that is what you have.
of course now that i want to take pics of mine i cant find one lol post a topic asking about tiny SPS looking grows on your rock and i'm sure somone will answer. i have seen in Posted here in the past. i'll see what i can dig up
 
lillibirdy

lillibirdy

Member
Oceanic, Yea, that points on top part sounds like what I have, but the one spot with two of them that are 1/4 tall, are straight stalks. Not like the point of a pen. more like the lead of a pencil, and hollow. I can't wait for a pic of yours! Not sure what to post. Can you suggest a title?
KathyW
 
oceana

oceana

Active Member
well it was a pain to get a pic in focus. but here is the best one i could get.
camera works great up to about 3 inches any closer then that and it kinda stinks. oh well what should i expect for a 500 camera lol
I dont know is its good enough pic or if its what you have but your Post made me think of these. I wish i could remember what they are called but its not coralline
 
lillibirdy

lillibirdy

Member
That sure looks similar, mine is darker red tho. Are those stalks straight like pencil lead or do they taper to a tip?
I sure hope someone else posts what they are in your tank, so I can do a search and see for sure if they are same as mine. I was hoping it really was coralline, how cool would that have been! BUT, I kinda doubted my newbie self would be so lucky when I didn't see any posts on here about articulated coralline in you pro's tanks, lol.
Thanks for pics Oceana!
KathyW
 
apple5150

apple5150

New Member
I have this stuff too and I do not know what it is. I have it all over some of my rocks. Would be nice to know. Anyone have any ideas??
 
puffer32

puffer32

Active Member
I have several red plant type things growing in my tank, I think they are just a form of red algae? :notsure:
 
lillibirdy

lillibirdy

Member

I borrowed a camera, tried to edit to be small enough.
As you can see this is a bit different with it's skinny tall stems. I did a google search on foraminiferans and Protista, none of the images I saw looked like this either.
KathyW
 
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