# little floating spheres



## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

I found several hundred of these things, which I do not recognize, floating in a tank.
Look familiar?


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

Wow, if that was a saltwater aquarium I'd assume you had valonia algae.










But in a planted aquarium I do not know. A couple of questions for you:

How large are they?

Did you just add new plants to the aquarium? I sometimes get thick oily green bubbles when I add new plants from mail order plant stores (especially if I am bad and do not rinse the plants first). But those bubbles I would not be able to remove from the aquarium without breaking.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Snail egg clusters? No sure why they're green though.


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## aelysa (Nov 27, 2006)

I forget what they are called but I see them at a nearby lake... I don't know if it's an algae or a plant though.


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## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

> Wow, if that was a saltwater aquarium I'd assume you had valonia algae.


That reference did cross my mind but this is freshwater.



> How large are they?


They are small. Here is a size reference with a piece of duckweed.











> Did you just add new plants to the aquarium?


There have been no new plants added to the tank. The only recent change was the addition of a new garden pump to the tank filtration that has increased the water flow in the tank.



> Snail egg clusters?


 Seems unlikely, there are not a lot of snails in the tank. There are four clown loaches in the tank.


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## riverspryte (Sep 16, 2006)

They could be loach eggs. I'm not sure about clown loaches, but I know that kuhli loaches lay small, bright green eggs.


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## aelysa (Nov 27, 2006)

Tada!
Could these be it? Also called watermeal.


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## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

> Could these be it?


Wolffia - I think that is the plant.
thanks,


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## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

I don't think that is Wolffia (water meal). Wolffia looks just like duck weed only much, much smaller. ( In fact it's the worlds smallest flowering plant) What you have I believe to be a gelatinous slime algae similar to/or it is _Ophrydium versatile._
The garden pump you added, was it used outside? Otherwise I cant figure out how you got these in your tank. 
But those are very good pictures, and a cool organism you have there!


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## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

> I don't think that is Wolffia (water meal). Wolffia looks just like duck weed only much, much smaller.


Compare the photos above with the one here:

http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Plantae/Monocotyledoneae/Lemnaceae/images/57.Wolffia_brasiliensis,_plant,_SM4.mx.jpg

They appear similar.



> What you have I believe to be a gelatinous slime algae similar to/or it is Ophrydium versatile.


 I would expect it to be slimier if it were gelatinous slime algae.



> The garden pump you added, was it used outside?


Not unless it was returned to the store and repackaged. It appeared new on installation.



> Otherwise I cant figure out how you got these in your tank.


I am not sure.


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## CherylH (Jul 22, 2004)

I have this in one of my tanks (it's harder than duckweed to get rid of) and posted questions on it at PT several months ago. It was decided it was Wolfia. volvox? - The Planted Tank Forum

I feel sorry for you. I hate this stuff.


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## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

> I feel sorry for you. I hate this stuff


I plan to tear down the tank and rescape. So, hopefully it will not reappear.

If the plant you have is Wolffia brasiliensis it is native to California.



> Wolffia brasiliensis, a monocot in the family Lemnaceae, is native to California. It is included by the California Native Plant Society on list 2.3 (rare, threatened, or endangered in CA; common elsewhere)


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## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

> Compare the photos above with the one here:
> 
> http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Pl...nt,_SM4.mx.jpg
> 
> They appear similar.


Yes they do look like Wolffia.
I was wrong


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## AndyT. (Jun 28, 2006)

Sorry you have this stuff and I hope it disappears during the teardown, but it was kind of cool to learn about wolffia. Good luck with it.


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## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

> it was kind of cool to learn about wolffia.


Agreed. It is an interesting plant.

Thanks to CherylH for providing the link to the related thread. Good to know that it is a weed and that someone else found this in their tank and did not know where it came from.


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## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

maybe it's just the extreme macro photos (nice ones buy the way) but it looks a little gelatinous to be Wolffia....is it grainy to touch? The Wolffia sp. that I had/have feels like cornmeal when you painstakingly try to fish every last piece out your tank and 1 week later it's back, making you try to crush it in your fingers...."die! die! die!"


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## wiste (Feb 10, 2006)

> maybe it's just the extreme macro photos (nice ones buy the way) but it looks a little gelatinous to be Wolffia....is it grainy to touch?


thanks,
They are solid, kind of grainy, and not gelatinous.


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