What is this strange microscopic thing?

[eraserhead187]

Just checking out some of my substrate under the microscope and found this weird thing. It's a tangle of some kind of filaments, but it is moving. Any ideas? I know what the little Coolia is there next to it. No clue what this is though.

 

[cristata.reef]

No idea but it definitely looks cool. @KJ any ideas?

 

[reef lover]

Im thinking red turf algae getting moved around in the flow.

 

[eraserhead187]

Im thinking red turf algae getting moved around in the flow.

That's what I would have thought, but this was taken under a microscope on a slide. No flow involved. Watching it longer, it was clear that the filaments are motile. They were rhythmic movements.

 

[Dennis McGrath]

Looks like my son's hair when he first wakes up in the morning.

 

[Livinlocal]

Very strange

 

[redfishbluefish]

I say microscopic filamentous algae. The movement you are seeing is from Brownian Motion. And if we wish to talk about common microscopic filamentous algae we find in our tanks, we're talking cyanobacteria :

 

[Adele]

+1 on the “no idea but cool”. I need to take my scope out and play more often.

 

[cracker]

Very cool looking, I love seeing all the exotic marine life.
How do You get these pictures thru a scope?

 

[eraserhead187]

Also, I've never seen a speck of turf algae. I

Very cool looking, I love seeing all the exotic marine life.
How do You get these pictures thru a scope?

I've got a little camera that replaces the eyepiece and it just connects to the *** outer with USB. It's a pretty cheap microscope, but it gets the job done!

 

[eraserhead187]

I say microscopic filamentous algae. The movement you are seeing is from Brownian Motion. And if we wish to talk about common microscopic filamentous algae we find in our tanks, we're talking cyanobacteria :

You know, under higher magnification it does have that segmented appearance like certain cyanos. I'll take it over the dinos I dealt with last fall and winter. I'll see if I can hunt more down.

To me though it looks too organized to be Brownian. Whenever I've seen that it always looks more like a vibration with random motion.

Thanks!

 

[taricha]

Just checking out some of my substrate under the microscope and found this weird thing. It's a tangle of some kind of filaments, but it is moving. Any ideas?

Spirulina!

 

[eraserhead187]

Sure enough!! Mystery solved. We'll done and thanks!

 

[CDavmd]

So a species of cyano/BG algae....is it as bad as our usual cyano friends?

 

[eraserhead187]

I'm willing to bet a little of it is probably normal as part of the biosphere in a reef tank. I've never seen any outward sign of it, just that blob under the scope. But I will know to watch out for it now!