Weird stick macro algae?

[Oiseaufeu]

Hi, I found this several months ago and it barely grew ever since I noticed it. It holds quite strongly to the rock and hasn’t spread at all. The only thing that changed is the fuzz growing at the tip of the stick. I thought that hair algae was growing on it, so I cleaned it up and that’s when I noticed that it came from the stick. Yes, I called it the stick because it looks like one. Any idea of what this is? It’s still super tiny.

 

[Rugops]

Looks like Calupera sp. that has roots or covered with hair algae

 

[Oiseaufeu]

Looks like Calupera sp. that has roots or covered with hair algae

Thanks! I tried cleaning it a bit without killing it. I guess that I’ll clean it again.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The hair-like growths do seem to be coming form the stalk of the algae itself, so I think this may actually be a brown algae species of some kind (though I'm not sure which kind).

There are quite a few brown algae species that branch, and quite a few that would develop filamentous, hair-like strands similar to this, but I don't know enough about brown algae ID yet to narrow down what yours could be.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

The hair-like growths do seem to be coming form the stalk of the algae itself, so I think this may actually be a brown algae species of some kind (though I'm not sure which kind).

There are quite a few brown algae species that branch, and quite a few that would develop filamentous, hair-like strands similar to this, but I don't know enough about brown algae ID yet to narrow down what yours could be.

Thanks! Someone else said it was some sort of caulerpa, but google showed me that caulerpa is green and not brown. And it never changed colour to green. I’ll look into brown algae then.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thanks! Someone else said it was some sort of caulerpa, but google showed me that caulerpa is green and not brown. And it never changed colour to green. I’ll look into brown algae then.

Yeah, the closest species I know at the moment that are native to tropical locations are Hincksia species and Sphacelaria species, but I don't know that they're quite right.

 

[Oiseaufeu]

Yeah, the closest species I know at the moment that are native to tropical locations are Hincksia species and Sphacelaria species, but I don't know that they're quite right.

Thanks! I’ll look into them.