bleeding caulerpa

[Anonymous]

Decided it was time to weed out some caulerpa from my mud sump for nutrient export & so forth. Thought I would get in their with the scissors and "mow the lawn" so I wouldn't disturb the mud. Turns out the caulerpa bleeds a milky substance into the water if it is cut or torn - is this milky stuff bad news? It is the flat-bladed variety of caulerpa.

I ended up just ripping out a couple handfulls of the caulerpa; the mud settled down fairly quickly.

Anyone have a good technique for thinning this stuff?

 

[SPC]

The only time I have witnessed my caulerpa (5 different varieties) doing this is when it was dying.
Steve

 

[SteveP]

Flat-bladed? Could it be halimeda, and not caulerpa? My halimeda "bleeds" a milky substance when I prune it. Another help ID'ing it would be that halimeda stinks pretty bad, and most caulerpas I've seen have no odor at all.

Steve
8{I

 

[Anonymous]

Mine has no odor, so I suspect it is not the same stuff as your halimeda. Interesting that they have similar bleeding though.

I started out with two other varieties - the grapey looking stuff and the kind with the feathery, ferny leaves. But the flat-bladed "grassy" variety choked the other two out.

 

[danmhippo]

I have C. prolifera, It's probably the same as yours or similar. Mine is flat bladed as well. When you are trimming the caulerpa, I don't suggest taking the scissor and "mow the lawn". Whatever the nutrient was stored in the leaves will be leached out as you scissor them in half. I know this can be a pain when you are to trim it, but you have to snip at the base of the runner to minimize the "ooze" as I call it.

Yes, my C. prolifera "ooze" as you break the leaves in half.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I'll try snipping closer to the runner.

Its almost like having a freshwater tank again - all I need is some neon tetras in there.

 

[danmhippo]

LOL......Just so you know, my 1/2 of my main tank is heavily planted with C. prolifera.

Last week, the live marine ghost shrimps I ordered came with 20-30 of the feeder fish fries they seined as well. With those little fish fries in thick caulerpa forest, looks not much different from Freshwater planted tanks with exception of some colorful sponges, corals, and gorgonians in between.

Maybe just me, but I liked the way it looks now.

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
I guess we have similar taste, but I won't keep them in the main tank, but in the sump instead.

Where did you get the marine ghost shrimps? Are they the ones with some white spots on the back and side?

 

[danmhippo]

http://www.aquaculturestore.com/products.html
Scroll all the way down to "NEW PRICES ON COMMON SHORE SHRIMP"....Palaemonetes vulgaris. These are the saltwater ghostshrimps and to my untrained eyes, I can't tell the differences from the common freshwater ghost shrimps. I have been told there are varieties of ghost shrimps and some can do well both fresh, brackish and full strength salt. I haven't had the time to see if I can acclimate LFS freshwater ghost shrimp to saltwater.

These Palaemonetes vulgaris I receive on regular shipments are excellent as both food and scavenger. My seahorses, pipefish, niger and filefish all loved them to "death". Plus since they are saltwater variety, I don't need to worry about leftovers deteriating in my tanks. They have never bugged my corals and gorgonians. I kept some (about 50-100) in my refugium and these are from the first batch I received 4 months ago and are still there with some smaller shrimps......I guessed some hatched and managed from being eaten.