Halimeda going sexual (pics)

[Mike4284m]

I figured I'd liven things up a bit in here and post some pictures of my Halimeda discoidea going sexual. I know most people are aware that Caulerpa can have a tendency to do this, but it can also happen with other species of algae.

Luckily, Halimeda will appear "fuzzy" like this for about a day (at least in my case) before it releases gametes. I opted to leave the algae in the aquarium to observe it. My tank doesn't currently contain any fish and I thought the filter feeding invertebrates may actually benefit from it.

I have other portions of Halimeda of this species and a couple others, but only this piece decided to release gametes. My only possible explanation was a swing in salinity I had due to careless top off.

Anybody else ever experience this?


http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f127/Mike4284m/FlamGardens004.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f127/Mike4284m/FlamGardens007.jpg

Can you imagine how someone with no knowledge of macros might take the title of this thread? :p

[mastou]

Cool pics :)
I have some Halimeda also but have never seen it go sexual, have you any idea how big the risk is for it doing so?
How long warning do you get, and how long time does it take (releasing the spores)?

/Magnus

[Mike4284m]

I don't believe this occurs too often as I've only heard it mentioned a few times. So I would guess the risk is pretty low. As I mentioned, even if it does occur you have plenty of time to remove it. I would say I had a good 24-36 hours before it appeared to release the gametes. If you check out your tank half as often as I do you should have no problem.

I saw zero change in water quality when it finally happened, but this may be because this particular piece was not that large.

[THB]

Amazing pics. Thanks for sharing them!

[shanzzz6]

so what happens when it gets all fuzzy?? cos my halimeda's doing the same as urs in the pics... what am i suppose to do??

[Mike4284m]

Take it out if you don't want to risk any of the complications with it releasing the gametes.

[shanzzz6]

wat complications..... and i guess it was a little to late... becos it caused an algae bloom and 1 of my cleaners died...

[Samala]

Complications are typically a spike in ammonia levels. If its already happened (and I'm sorry we didnt catch this sooner to help prevent this) you need to do some water changes, run carbon and aerate the water aggressively.

I would do a water change daily for a few days and keep your protein skimmer (if there is one on the system) going. The gametes will die in the water, or be filtered out, and will add to the overall bioload. We want to process that ammonia or get it out before it becomes toxic to the other tank inhabitants.

>Sarah

[shanzzz6]

rites thanx... then when will the halimeda get its colour back??

[Mike4284m]

It won't. It is essentially dead.

[sheorchid1]

I have had a reef tank for 15 years. My friend wants to give me a bunch of halameda, about fist size. Do I want this in my tank, or should I just avoid it?

[JimmyOrangeSeed]

I had this happen in my tank. I was amazed at all the Halimeda that started popping up all over the place. Mine with sexual from salinity swings also....

[djkms]

Complications are typically a spike in ammonia levels. If its already happened (and I'm sorry we didnt catch this sooner to help prevent this) you need to do some water changes, run carbon and aerate the water aggressively.

I would do a water change daily for a few days and keep your protein skimmer (if there is one on the system) going. The gametes will die in the water, or be filtered out, and will add to the overall bioload. We want to process that ammonia or get it out before it becomes toxic to the other tank inhabitants.

>Sarah

Interesting, I thought the biggest concern was excess CO2 in the water column. I am curious to learn more about a spike in ammonia. How would a algae be any more a threat then lets say, a fish dying? Generally algae has a much smaller mass than a fish...is the algae more of a threat in a spike in ammonia then a fish because there is no cleanup crew to consume the mass?

[Plantbrain]

Interesting, I thought the biggest concern was excess CO2 in the water column. I am curious to learn more about a spike in ammonia. How would a algae be any more a threat then lets say, a fish dying? Generally algae has a much smaller mass than a fish...is the algae more of a threat in a spike in ammonia then a fish because there is no cleanup crew to consume the mass?

CO2 is rarely an issue, since most folks have some current and often quite a bit, CO2 degasses very fast, in about 15-45 minutes say from a high ppm of let's chose 30ppm, to under 3 in in less than 30 minutes for most well run reef/marine tanks.

The CO2 also must come from O2 aerobic respiration by bacteria and tiny invert shreders etc or perhaps larger ones like crabs and so on.

With 5-7 ppm of O2, the CO2 cannot balance unless there is a lot of O2 being consumed and not replaced. I would argue that O2, not CO2.........would be far more important and relates to many fish kills in Freshwater systems where high Organic loading occurs(say herbicide use to kill off a lot of aquatic weeds........this is a common issue).

The CO2 does not kill the fish, the lack of O2 does.

Still, in these systems, the gametes are not an extreme organic load really, unless you have a massive bed of macro algae. What I'd be more bothered by is thousands of pesky germlings settling all over the tank and attaching where I do not want them too. This is a PITA.

NH4 might be the same type of issue, the filters often can handle small loads, but a large load like a fish.........might pose an issue as well as a lot of macro algae. I think the NH4 source might induce germination in other species or cause some to go sexual or change in some fashion.
If some of the macros are still doing fine, then they will absorb the NH4 directly and the downstream NO3 as well.

Water changes, more aeration etc, are all good things, but might not help a whole lot once the pesky suckers start settling on everything.

A classic example is the Neomeris outbreak examples in reefs.
:uzi:

Regards,
Tom Barr

[djkms]

So it sounds like to me that a macro going sexual and wiping a tank is probably a bit exaggerated unless you have tons of macro going sexual at once?

Would I be safe to say that as long as I have good flow (O2 in the water column) and proper husbandry I shouldn't worry too much about it?

Would it be smart to separate growing macros into different patches to lesson the amount of the plant going sexual if it does occur?

Is it also safe to assume that what caused the macro to go sexual in the first place might be the cause of a tank wiping and not the act of it going sexual. I tried to google macro going sexual and wiping tank and very little info is returned....

I ask these questions because I have tons of macro in my display. Probably as many different types of macros as I do coral. Only one type of Caulerpa though (prolifera). I have noticed die off, leafs turning clear and whatnot but haven't seen any of them going sexual like the pics above. I do worry about macros wiping my tank. I do overfeed my tank though so there are nutrients for the macros to feed on. I was also dosing iron until a dictoya outbreak.