Green color morph of red macroalgae

[chaples55]

A couple months ago, a green tip started growing on my red macro. I didn't think much of it at first. Maybe it was just some unhealthy growth or it had been exposed to air too long. But the green portion just kept growing, and it's definitely healthy! Aside from the color it looks identical to the rest of the macroalgae. It's even still attached to the rest of this red clump. You can see the 'junction' is old growth with some coralline algae on it.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Did I just witness a genetic mutation? I'll definitely save this and keep growing it out. Gonna try to keep the red and green together but I'm sure it'll break off eventually. Curious to see what happens from there.

 

[shimshimshinil]

wow what an interested phenomenon

 

[york1]

I wonder if it is a lack of some nutrient or something like that

 

[Jikkermanccini]

That's so fascinating! It's like variegation in normal plants, where a section of the plant stops producing red pigments for unknown reasons. I recall that a lot of Gracilarias' good proteins are tied to the red pigments, so I wonder if this greened out version even has any of them.

 

[chaples55]

My nitrates were at 0 and phosphates 0.4 when this started. I've since started dosing KNO3, and now my nitrates are around 20 and phosphates down to 0.04. Aside from the red maybe getting a little darker I haven't noticed any other changes. I also dose Tropic Marin trace elements so I assume there's some iron in there.

Interesting thought on the pigments/proteins. Might have to do some reading on what causes variegation in plants.

I just shared a small piece of the green macro with another member, very curious to see if it stays green and survives on its own!

 

[skrappy]

My nitrates were at 0 and phosphates 0.4 when this started. I've since started dosing KNO3, and now my nitrates are around 20 and phosphates down to 0.04. Aside from the red maybe getting a little darker I haven't noticed any other changes. I also dose Tropic Marin trace elements so I assume there's some iron in there.

Interesting thought on the pigments/proteins. Might have to do some reading on what causes variegation in plants.

I just shared a small piece of the green macro with another member, very curious to see if it stays green and survives on its own!

Just noticed that I never gave an update on the bit that was shared with me. Some of the green part melted away, what didn't melt turned back to red. The red parts grew fine.

 

[ecoreefguy]

This looks like the algae was going sexual. Similar to chaeto. Just white and dies. Releases everything and pollutes water

 

[chaples55]

Interesting! Unfortunately, my green portion has died as well, but it was a part of a larger die-off in my refugium likely due to neglect and once again bottoming out nutrients for too long. Up until about two months ago it had stayed green and continued to grow normally. It was at least tennis ball sized before most of my macro died off. Wish I had kept a backup sample in another system! I guess we'll see if it ever happens again.

 

[ecoreefguy]

You’re lucky, usually die off like that pollutes the tank from all the nutrient release