[SouthBayPhoto]

I'm kinda wondering what this is. I know it's probably REALLY hard to tell by the photo, but I don't have any of my good equipment here tonight to take a real shot and I'm using an ancient POS camera. I think my cell phone has a better camera in it. LOL

Anyway, it appears to be three small green bubbles on my live rock. They "just appeared" the other day. I'm wondering if anyone might have an idea of what they are?



They are pretty small, but I've never seen anything like this in my tank before, so I thought I'd ask.

Is it some kind of algae? or maybe eggs of some type?

[scubadude]

prolly valonia, do an image search on google...there are a couple of differnt types of valonia too

P.S. dont burst the bubbles...they will spread...I think the technical term is called sporulate

[Ninong]

Where in that photo are these "three small green bubbles?"

In any case, "green bubbles" are usually bubble algae (Ventricaria ventricosa, formerly called Valonia ventricosa). This is a nuisance alga that should be removed, carefully. Gently twist the thallus (the bubble) with your fingers to loosen the holdfasts from the rock and remove from the aquarium. Try to do this without breaking the bubble. Mature bubbles (meaning larger ones) contain spores that will spread through the tank resulting in more bubble algae.

[SouthBayPhoto]

Ninong, I changed the pic and highlighted them. Again, the camera sucks, so it's hard to get a good shot of them. They are green when you look at them in the light in the tank (I found a fourth, single one when I went back to look), but they kind of look purplish/brown in the photo.

I was hoping it was something good and not something bad. Darn it.

I'll try to remove them, but knowing my luck, I'm going to break them. Will they do anything to me if I break them in my fingers?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by SouthBayPhoto

Ninong, I changed the pic and highlighted them. Again, the camera sucks, so it's hard to get a good shot of them. They are green when you look at them in the light in the tank (I found a fourth, single one when I went back to look), but they kind of look purplish/brown in the photo.

I think I see one small shiny one and it's almost certainly bubble algae.

I was hoping it was something good and not something bad. Darn it.

They're definitely not desirable, so you want to remove them before they take over.

I'll try to remove them, but knowing my luck, I'm going to break them. Will they do anything to me if I break them in my fingers?

No, they won't do anything to you if they break in your fingers. They will just sort of pop and you will be left with what feels like an empty grape. When they are small like this, they are not a threat to sporulate because they haven't matured enough yet. Unfortunately, you probably have spores in your tank already, otherwise you wouldn't have the ones you have now. So you might see more of these over the next few weeks.

[SouthBayPhoto]

Besides "picking them off", is there any other way to get them under control? Off hand...what causes them?

I'm doing a water change tomorrow and I'll pick them off once I drain the 6 gallons I'm changing out.

I'm still waiting for my skimmer to arrive (UGGGHHHH!), so I've only been running a HOB filter and an undergravel with 2 powerheads. I'm sure not the best filtration, since I do seem to get a lot of "sections" of algae on my gravel/crushed coral.

I'm trying to "make do" with what I have in this tank because I'm trying to put all the new/good stuff into the 90 I'm building. I can't afford to do both at once.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by SouthBayPhoto

Besides "picking them off", is there any other way to get them under control?

Some herbivorous fish eat them but most do not. Foxface rabbitfish and some surgeonfish eat them. Emerald green crabs (Mithraculus sculptus) will sometimes eat them but these crabs are not really reef-aquarium safe and I certainly don't recommend them.

Off hand...what causes them?

They're just a nuisance alga. You obviously had some spores that came in on your live rock. In nature, there would be lots of natural controls (herbivores) to keep them in check but if you don't have one of the natural controls in your tank, then they can spread all over the place taking up a lot of valuable real estate.

I'm doing a water change tomorrow and I'll pick them off once I drain the 6 gallons I'm changing out.

You can also remove them with a long pair of tweezers but if you can get to them with your fingers, that's usually better because you can have a better feel for when the bubble is about to burst.

P.S. -- Photo of Ventricaria ventricosa

[SouthBayPhoto]

Yup, I just did a search off the name you gave me and those are it.

Would it be best for me to just lift the live rock piece out of my tank and take them off over the sink? I just figured it would be easier and probably a better shot at not bursting it if I didn't have to reach down in the tank and do it.

Go figure that it's only a small 2.5 lb piece of live rock that I have in that tank and it gets infected. LOL But that would make it easy to pull out and pick them off and then put it back in.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by SouthBayPhoto

Would it be best for me to just lift the live rock piece out of my tank and take them off over the sink?

Yes, that's fine if you want to do it that way.

[SouthBayPhoto]

Mission accomplished!

Didn't even break any of them either, but I performed the surgery outside of the tank...juuuust in case. LOL

Thanks for the help and I'll keep on the lookout for more.