Live Rock growth

[Webman]

I have a black pearl looking balloon growing on my live rock. What it is and is it dangerous to other inhabitants?

Thanks

[gramma royale]

If it's a large, spherical, and black bubble, it could be a sailor's eyeball. It's a type of algae. These things are really cool in that they are the largest single-celled organism we know of. Basically, that bubble is just one cell! I've actually been looking into it, trying to find some info on it, but I haven't found anything yet. I found what I told you in a small reef book, the title escapes me at the moment. Anyhow, it's harmless to your inhabitants. Try not to pop it though as it might cloud you're water.

If it's small and sort of oblong, it's probably valonia, bubble algae. This algae is not really harmful, so long as they don't reproduce too quickly. If you want to get rid of them, try an emerald crab. Be careful with the crabs though, they tend to eat polyps as well

Hope this helped you some!

[gramma royale]

whoops! lol, just did a quick search on the sailor's eyeball and something turned up. It seems they are a species of valonia. Sorry about the confusion. They're still harmless and IMHO, are a great addition to a tank

[Webman]

Thanks

[chromis]

Get rid of it now! Before it starts reproducing and covers your entire tank! Ask anyone about valonia and they will tell you that it is definetly not harmless and does not make a great addition to your tank. This stuff is extremely nasty when it gets large and numerous.


Andrew

[gramma royale]

OK, I'm obviously not too experienced with reef-keeping yet, as my only reef tanks is a mere 4 months old. But from what I've seen in my own tank, the sailor's eyeball does not reproduce like mad. I've even brought this up with some of the reef guys at my LFS. In the past 4 months, I've only had 1 sailor's eyeball. It's doubled in size and is not about an inch across! The common bubble algae, on the other hand, does spread like wildfire. My tiny in-tank refugium has a piece of LR covered with it. I'm in the process of catching my emerald crab and placing him in the refugium to take care of the valonia. But this is all just my limited experience. As I said before, I'm really interested about this type of algae, especially the eyeball, so let me know if you guys come up with any info. Thanks.

[Reinhold]

Webman:

Can you post a picture of the thing?

[Reefland]

I've never heard of "sailor's eyeball" personally but what you have sure don't sound like Valonia algae. Here is a link to a great picture on reefs.org of the the algae they are mentioning above.
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/pic...q_valonia.html

Scott

[naser]

what happened to just calling it bubble alge? that stuff sucks it spreads by either it poping by itself or you poping it removing it. it releases spores witch then plant new bubbles.

[Webman]

Here's a link to Bubble algae.

http://www.wyx.com/iheo/tank/macroalgae-ID.htm

Goto the bottom of the page after it loads.

[Reinhold]

How can one get rid of Bubble Algae?

Right now, I have a large mass on one piece of LR. It hasn't spread in over 3 months, so I've left it alone. The LR has a 3" Feather Duster on it, so I need to be careful with removal techniques.