glowing plankton???

[rangerfan]

many of you may know about this and many of you may not unless you have lived near the coast but would it be possible to have flouresence plankton (i think that is how you spell it) or algae which ever one it is in a reef tank i do not know much about it, except for how much fun it was to watch the waves glow and night fishing during the blooms was awesome but can the stuff live in an aquarium? this could be a really stupid question just thought i would ask and hope someone with more knowledge could answer??

[Casey]

sorry never heard of it in an aquarium

[rangerfan]

i have never heard of it either i was just wondering if it was possible for it to live in the aquarium enviroment, i am assuming the only way for it to get there would be to hitchhike or if you were extremly motivated and took some seawater that contained a bloom but my main question is would it thrive???

[Casey]

I doubt it would survive since it is coral food.

[skeety]

I am pretty sure plankon only thrives in nutrient rich environments...so even if you couold get some...to keep it alive would more than likely cost you your other inhabitants.

neat idea though

[yardboy]

Hopefully you are asking this question pursuant to actually trying it!

We could speculate that it would or wouldn't work, but unless you try......

[rockster2599]

You probably do have it,
Just not in enought quantities for it to be seen. At the coast wave action concentrates this plankton so you can see the fluorescence when the waves break. You may have more luck if you tried to culture it.
By the way the marine dinoflagellates you are talking about are LUMINESCENT (light producing), not fluorescent (when illuminated emits light of a different wavelength).
Rockster

[yardboy]

Spending lots of time in boats in the Gulf of Mexico, I've found that some of the luminescent plankton is quite large, and is obviously zooplankton, as we'd snatch some in a bucket and some of the brightest glowing ones looked like tiny shrimps, what I'd probably call an amphipod or copepod now.

[webdr]

My hometown is Savannah ga, we used to walk at night on the beach and leave green glowing foot prints. If your out in the boat at night, the propeller chops em up and the its really brite green, looks awesome.

[Geoff]

back in the early 90's when you could get Carribean LR easily, it was not unusual to get phosphorescent worms in the LR. they would also live for quite a while. i remember having these worms for at least 6 months. they would stick out of the LR about 1/2" and then give a single flash. i remember spending nights looking at the tank with a flashlight trying to figure out what was flashing in the tank! this was back when my tank was a headboard.

G~