Green Isochrysis

[KathyL]

Hi all,
Years ago I had a thriving Isochrysis culture. It sat in a 2 L soda bottle next to lots of bottles of nanochloropsis. When I went on vacation, my fish sitter saw the brown bottle, and assuming it was dead, turned off the air. By the time I got back, it really was dead. I switched to frozen phyto, as I really did not need live.

Now I'm trying to culture live phyto again. Jim W kindly sent me a thriving C Iso culture. I tried starting it. It did not crash, but took a week to really bloom. Unfortunately it has bloomed green….

This happened once before to me, and the bottle eventually turned brown again. Unless my memory fails me, which is happening more and more lately.

Does anyone have any experience with this phenomenon? Is high temperature a cause?

[JimWelsh]

Kathy,

Not sure what is going on with your starter. I'm only culturing Iso right now, so it is unlikely a Nanno contamination. I've been culturing it at between 70-75 F.

Jim

[KathyL]

Yeah, My basement is at 78 right now. I'm going to keep it going and see what happens. I don't have nanno or any other phyto growing now either, except for the stuff on sides of the aquariums. I wasn't thinking that there was anything wrong with the culture you sent, just the conditions in my basement.

[Luis A M]

Hi,Kathy,great to see you again,you´ve been missed!
Whenever a culture shows a funny shade,I check it under the scope;you´ll usually find Chlorella or other feral contaminant.

[BaboonScience]

Hey, Kathy,
I currently have a culture of tIso that I am fairly certain is clean. It turned sort of a "straw green" during a prolonged power outage and temperature drop last winter. Given more acceptable environmental conditions, it has remained the same "shade", indicating that those accessory pigments still predominate. The organism is identical to the other tIso cultures under the microscope. Could it be that the accessory pigments selected under stress remain in dominance when the stress is removed? For the organism, there would be no problem with this until the next stressor comes along.
BTW, looking at it right now, it is still straw green. The tIso cultures beside it are golder brown (Algagen cultures). These cultures have been side by side for greater than two months. Perhaps, a stress is required before you see an accessory pigment shift?

John

[KathyL]

How much magnification do I need to see Isochrysis and what should it look like. Swimmers? With my home microscope I can barely see O. marina….

By the way, nice to see the two of you as well. Going to Macna this year?

[JimWelsh]

O. marina are about 15 x 30 microns. Isochrysis is 5 - 7 microns, more or less round in shape, and motile (although they do not move anywhere nearly as quickly as O. marina).

[KathyL]

This morning there was a green precipitate. I've got contamination. Time to order from Algagen.

[Luis A M]

Kathy,I considered attending Macna,but couldn´t convince the family about visiting Iowa! BTW,they loved that city tour of SL.
T-ISO are ovoid/roundish and motile,you can see that even under low magnif.Chlorella are large,green,round and non motile.
Permanent loss of colour of T-ISO,as noticed by John? Hmmm,something along these lines is frequently reported by those attempting to culture RHO.It turns green.I consulted Gary W,a well known authority,who said that the cells must be dying and losing the red pigment while still retaining the green ones.Hmmm again
This reminds my visit to a dear friend and famous clown breeder in Chicago.He showed me his T-ISO culture and it was completely green! My friend is daltonic and couldn´t see the green colour!
His hatchery was visited by virtually every breeder coming to the area;funny that nobody told him before...
Not relationed with colour,but I have seen loss of motility in some motile algae.Other than that,they remain alive and reproduce normally.In one case,a T-ISO,it was clearly produced by thermal stress.

[BaboonScience]

Luis
The "green" tIso is really a yellow/green. I keep a 250 ml flask of it beside the other tIso cultures (classic golden brown). Obviously, side by side, the environmental conditions are nearly identical. The loss of pigmentation was certainly due to a temperature spike. Interesting that it persists.

Kathy, not sure, but I think that our travels may be in the opposite direction MACNA week.
John

[Luis A M]

John,interesting observation.The "greened"RHO also remains green for good.
I failed to imagine what "straw green"meant.Which is easy;straw is yellow,straw green had to be yellowish green!
Which reminds me of the old Spanish song "Ojos Verdes"(Green eyes):
Ojos verdes,verdes como la albahaca (green as the basil)
Verdes como el trigo verde (green like the green wheat)
y el verde,verde limon (and the green,green lemmon)
Excuse the disgression

[BaboonScience]

Yes, I keep thinking that it will eventually recover the accessory pigments. That is why I keep that culture running.

And thanks for the Spanish lesson. I think that my comprehension is improving with your assistance.
John

[Luis A M]

And thanks for the Spanish lesson. I think that my comprehension is improving with your assistance.
John

HEHE,was it so obvious that I was spamming some Spanish lessons
Now all Mofibers know how to say "Green" in Spanish.And Portuguese,and Italian!

[KathyL]

Interesting:
I left my culture bubbling, and now it is a decisive cloudy yellow, almost golden. I wonder if the green stuff is converting back to brown, or if the Iso is outgrowing the green "contaminate" that appeared to crash on the bottom. I'll let it go, and we'll see what happens.

Jim, I've been giving my little culture of A panamensis a daily dose from the O marina jug, and the A. p. seems to have bloomed as well. I see the little guys twitching around in the culture, when I put my glasses on. I can see the O. marina under the scope, and it looks appropriately dense. I'm very happy. Thanks for your help.

[JimWelsh]

Glad to hear it! How are the Moina salina doing? If you can get the Iso to thrive (and it sounds like you are well on your way) then all the others will thrive, too! Good luck, and please keep us posted.

[KathyL]

not sure about the moina salina. They seemed quite robust at first, but now I'm thinking the A panamensis is doing better.

[AquaticEnterprises]

So...who's got the time and ability to be a kind soul and send me a small starter of Iso? The batch I got this last go round did absolutely nothing. I'd like to get it going continuously in order to feed my Parco copepds (which since my Iso never took off at all, it looks like I'll need to get a starter culture of them again as well once I get the hang of this). Anyone? Bueller?

[JimWelsh]

I could, but you'd get a MUCH better (cleaner) starter by ordering one from SeahorseSource.com. That's where I get mine from.

[AquaticEnterprises]

Jim, any idea how much shipping from them generally runs on phyto cultures? I'm working on a limited budget here. Would you recommend T- or C-Iso?

[KathyL]

OMG moina salina may be taking over the basement. Turns out they like Oxyrrhis marina.

Iso: Last week I took the bottle with the crashed green stuff at the bottom and the golden stuff circulating, and decanted off enough golden to start a new bottle. Again, it took some time to bloom, and now its the brightest green you've ever seen. I give up. I may just dump this in the saltwater tubs I am starting in the backyard and order some T-Iso fresh.

Jim, what's the difference between T Iso and C Iso?

[JimWelsh]

@AquaticEnterprises: Ask them about the shipping.

@Both: The main difference, as I conclude from the description on the SeahorseSource.com website, is that C-Iso is more temperature tolerant. That's about it. I interpret that to mean that it will do better at warmer temps than T-Iso.

[AquaticEnterprises]

Thanks Jim, I sent Dan an email last week and got my answer. They seem fairly reasonable.

[NirvanaFan]

Mind if I ask what he quoted you in shipping? I am looking for a good starter culture.

[BaboonScience]

I recently ordered and shipping was very reasonable = low.
John

[Suzy]

I ordered from Dan recently, too. Great service and ti came quickly. Plus, the price was very reasonable.