# Mysterious appearence, ID.



## Temuchin (Jun 10, 2008)

Is this some sort of liverwort? Ricca fluitans? It is rooted to the wood and seems to be to dark in color.

This is not something which was intentionally introduced. This appeared several months ago after a major rescape. The area was previously covered by a clump of petite anubias, rooted to the wood. The anubias was moved to a new location and the driftwood was left uncovered in that area. The plant has been growing slowly over the last few months. Over all, the light levels in this tank are low, 2 WPG over 7 gal, with a bulb in desperate need of replacement. That said, the plant is located about 1 inch below the surface, under the the center of the lamp.

The tank has been set up for over two years now. There have been no new addition of plants since it was set up. Could this have been introduced as either a small fragment or spores in water accompanying fish from the LFS? Has it been present on or under the roots of an anubias this whole time?

I would like to get some confirmation and maybe a possible explanation so I can plan on what to do with this tank in the next few months. I would appreciate the community's input.

For scale, above the mystery plant is some java moss.


----------



## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Was the wood collected in the wild?


----------



## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

can you get a little better pic? A closeup perhaps as well? It's hard to tell what it is with the current ones.....


----------



## Temuchin (Jun 10, 2008)

> Was the wood collected in the wild?


The wood was purchased at the Wet Spot in Portland about 2.5 years ago. When I got it I boiled the heck out of it. It has been in this tank since then.



> can you get a little better pic? A closeup perhaps as well?


 I can try popping the wood out of the tank to take a picture. I have not figured a good way to get a picture through my bow front tank. The curvature seems to blur my images. Even with a tripod and my DSLR. Those images are about as good as I've gotten. I'll see what else I can come up with. FYI the area the plant covers is about 1 inch across.


----------



## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

Looks like a moss to me.


----------



## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Yes, please do take a closeup. And take care of it. It might be something cool!


----------



## Temuchin (Jun 10, 2008)

Here is about as good as I can get. I had to turn the wood to face a flat side of the aquarium. For scale, the area covered by the image is about 2 inches. In the tank it appears darker green than in this image.





> And take care of it. It might be something cool!


Yea just ignore that algae you see. If it is some kind of ricca, I guess its good I ran out of Excell.


----------



## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

Wow.  I'd have to say it's some kind of Liverwort. That being said, when will you be ready to sell some?  It's really nice, great find.


----------



## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

Almost looks like mini-pellia, but different frond structure. Really cool.


----------



## Temuchin (Jun 10, 2008)

> when will you be ready to sell some?


At the rate that it is growing, some time next year.

One of the reasons for wanting to id this now, I was planing to redo this tank from the substrate up next month. I intended to replace this wood with some manzanita. I was also going to replace the light and start pushing excel. That may have to change now, if I intend to let this plant grow out. If it gets big enough I may try clipping some off and letting it float.


----------



## hooha (Apr 21, 2005)

Maybe one of the more experienced guys can chime in, but it's not anything I've seen before. It does look like a liverwort though - very cool!


----------



## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Yes, it definitely is some sort of liverwort. See if you can get it to continue to grow.


----------



## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

I'd try to find out the origin of the wood and contact a bryologist.


----------



## skewlboy (Jun 9, 2006)

some species of riccordia likely.... (more like a question than a statement)


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Looks like a liverwort to me too... Never seen this kind before though.

I wonder where it came from?

Can I be first in line to buy/trade for some?


----------



## Jeff.:P:. (Nov 20, 2007)

Behind me.  page 1


----------

