Algae.. What kind?

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sat Oct 12, 2013 5:55 pm

As continuation of this topic, here are some photos taken with 60x/1.35 and oil for maximum resolution. Can someone please ID this algae?

(Cropped)

UV excitation, red/green emission.

DAPI

1:2 macro photo showing how it covers the inside of my tropical aquarium's glass panels.

And a normal view of the tank...

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sun Oct 20, 2013 1:31 pm

Nobody??? Here is a close up of one of the cells that are leaf like. This is maybe twice the size of a red blood cell.

Cactusdave · Post by **Cactusdave** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 4:32 am

The larger, leaf shaped motile organisms look like Euglenoids of some kind. Not sure if all the others are the same, but a non-motile form.

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 4:54 am

Hello
They euglenas.
The round are euglenas palmeloide state
Francisco

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:25 am

Thank you, I still have a lot to learn. I initially thought Euglenoids are all motile.

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 11:10 am

Sorry to revive a very old thread, but I am not convinced these are Euglenoids. Please do note that I do not pretend to know much about algae or biology for that matter, but here is what bugs me about this ID:

1. I see no red eye spot, even in the palmelloid state I have seen red eyespots when I performed some research.
2. The palmelloid state is supposedly for when conditions are suboptimal, however I only ever see this algae in my tank in this state, never found a single motile euglenoid, and this is the state the algae reproduces profusely in.
3. I see no starch bundles inside these cells.

Is it not possible these are some kind of algal spore?

Here is another photo under 100x objective: