Tetraselmis Phytoplankton Culture ID

[mescobar]

I recently starting culturing my own tetra phytoplankton culture. I currently have two cultures that have been inoculated from different phyto seeds.

The first culture I have going looks like your typical Tetraselmis when under a microscope (~500X magnification) swimming fast, changing direction, in a breaststroke like motion. This phyto was sourced from a local reefer.

Before starting the second culture, I placed the seed phyto under the microscope (same ~500X magnification). However upon inspection, it doesn't look quite like the first culture. And I'm seeing a lot of thin skinny particulates in the sample . Along with some very small plankton that looks to be attempting to swim in a corkscrew-like manner. Is this sample actually Tetraselmis? What are the thin particulates? Could they be the food that phyto consumes? This phyto was sources from an online retailer.

 

[Stephers]

Looks like some type of cyano or spirulina. I've had some take over one of my cultures once, and it was so perfectly green, it was indistinguishable from tetra/nanno without a microscope. The seller likely doesn't even know. But this is why microscopes are awesome. Good on you for scoping it. I will say, I still dosed mine to the tank for a while after I knew it was contaminated and nothing bad happened lol. But probably not recommended without knowing exactly what it is.

 

[mescobar]

Thanks for the response, it does look like it could be cyanobacteria. The structures themselves don't look be coiled, which might not make it Spirulina. I'll be sure to contact the online seller so they can investigate themselves.