Discovered A New Brackish Water Plant!

[KenCotigirl]

JennyPenny yes would be nice. I would gladly experiment and share with our group.

KenP

[tooth]

I'd be interested in a new plant, too.
Brad

[Ace]

Mustafa?

[Ace]

JennyPenny,

It is sad. I don't think I'm going to be able to get this macro algae. As we can see, there has been no response from Mustafa and I'm just not sure what else I could do to try and get it. There are several guys that work at Aquatic Warehouse and I could keep calling and see if somebody there would be willing to send it but honestly all of the guys sounded the same. :-/



I would gladly pay you for any expenses you would have in going to that store. And I would be so grateful too.

"Help me JennyPenny. You are my only hope"!

[JennyPenny]

Ace,
I want to help you but I'm not planning a trip to southern CA for at least a few months. I just checked and San Diego is 493 miles from my house, and about 100 miles away from where I usually go when I visit down south (Disneyland). I didn't realize it was so far out of the way.
I have some interest in the plant, but I think I should wait until my travels take me a bit closer so it isn't so far out of the way.
If I do end up there earlier than expected, I will post here asap!!

[JennyPenny]

Ace! I just remembered my parents will be driving through San Diego soon! I will see if they can stop by. What is the name of the store?

[Ace]

Woooohooooo!!!!!

I believe it is called Aquatic Warehouse. I will confirm and call there tomorrow.

And you let me know what to do and I will send money.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Ok. It is Aquatic Warehouse. Now, mustafa reported that he got a sprig of it two times and it just died off. The guy that started this thread purchased a clump on a rock And it flourished. Somebody previously posted that it is unicellular and that Mustafa did not get the nucleus of the algae and so it died. Now, unfortunately Aquatic Warehouse is a bit stingy with the portions and only give a single finger as a portion per $10. One of the guys there told me that for some of the purchasers of the macroalgae it dies and for others it lives. So for the sake of success, I would like a thriple portion clump, all together and attached to something, if possible. I'd rather spend the additional money and have success than throw away the money for nothing.

What do you think about this?

[Mustafa]

Alright...original pictures have been restored. And I'll get this plant one way or another soon so I can propagate and distribute them if possible. Shipping these plants probably won't be as easy as shipping the current species...but we'll see.

[Mustafa]

Ok, Jason was kind enough to actually give me tank pictured in the original post. I'm going to start a new thread about it soon. I'm going to try to establish this plant at various salinities in my tanks, so it may take a while before it will be available for purchase.

[Mustafa]

Batophora oerstedii? Identified by Bruno De Reviers from MNHN, Paris.

Confusingly, this large thing is unicellular and have one single nucleus, hiden in the "root". Mustafa, I think this why you where unable to grow it in your tank: you took a calceous shell full of chloroplasts from the shop but withous nucleus. I think you need the mature sporangia (orange) or a piece of the root to duplicate the alga.

I'm pretty positive that this species is actually B. occidentalis based on the oval gametophores. B. oerstedi is supposed to have spherical ones. So for now i'm going to call this species B. occidentalis. Both species seem to look pretty much identical otherwise.

[Stalker]

Why not, do you want me to ask Bruno again?

[Mustafa]

Why not, do you want me to ask Bruno again?

Yes, that would be great. Tell him that the mature gametophores are actually more oval than round. I can provide some pictures. Other than that they seem to be very hard to distinguish.

[Euphotica]

For me there is obviously those giant cells found in algae, so it's not a bladderwort (there is some marine and brackish ones, but they have plant like structure), but an algae. The spheres looks more like charophyta oospore than bladderworth plancton traps. I think the green ones are immature female/male sex organs and the yellow ones are mature oospore. Can you please look at some yellow ones in the microscope? Charophytes' oospore have a spiral shaped calcium coat like this:

Good answer.

Is anyone else growing this stuff? If you send me some I'll attempt to id it more closely.

[Euphotica]

Why not, do you want me to ask Bruno again?

Yes, that would be great. Tell him that the mature gametophores are actually more oval than round. I can provide some pictures. Other than that they seem to be very hard to distinguish.

Good work, there, Mustafa. Was this your final conclusion? What was the outcome with growing this alga?

[Euphotica]

Any updates? Anyone have specific salinities and temp conditions under which this thing flourished or failed?