Little white mushroom things

[freybizzy]

These tiny white mushroom-looking things have started growing in various places around my liverock. Does anybody know what they might be?

 

[dingusplease]

Pretty hard to tell from the pics, the images only show a bunch of regions where it looks like part the photo got deleted (nothing but white)

 

[freybizzy]

G

 

[dingusplease]

Hmm, looks plantlike. Is it really green like it appears in the picture? Is it hard, as if it were calcareous, or soft, as if it were a plant seedling? Definitely interesting!

 

[freybizzy]

In the water it's completely white, I think the green might just be algae or something. The top part is extremely fragile, to the point where I can't even tell the texture because it just falls apart when I touch it.

 

[herp_mommy]

Looks like young Acetabularia. Pretty cool fun fact- "Acetabularia is a single-celled organism, but gigantic in size and complex in form, making it an excellent model organism for studying cell biology."

 

[dingusplease]

That's quite interesting! And cool!

 

[erichm20]

Wow- never heard of or seen those before! Too cool!

 

[mr_X]

I'm thinking caulerpa peltata. Both look pretty similar. They just seem to be lacking zooxanthellae at the moment-

 

[herp_mommy]

I'm thinking caulerpa peltata. Both look pretty similar. They just seem to be lacking zooxanthellae at the moment-

way more likely, just less cool

 

[mr_X]

way more likely, just less cool

Actually, I think you may have a closer match. The ridges on the outer edges don't say caulerpa really.... We'll see when they grow