Batophora occidentalis success story

[Corucia]

Hi all. It’s been a bit of time since I’ve posted here and I wanted to share some pics of the success that I’ve had growing Batophora occidentalis in one of my Opae ula tanks (the largest one, a 42,000ml / ~11 gallon Kontes lab reactor that I set up in 2017).

After introducing a small cluster of Batophora to the tank about two years ago, it all seemingly died over the course of a few months. I couldn’t identify what went wrong as the water chemistry was fine and lighting conditions seemed favorable for growth. There might have been a small remnant or two of the algae left somewhere, but for all intent and purposes I had written the Batophora off as shrimp food.

I then noticed a couple of months later that one of the empty shells in the tank had what looked like a fresh Batophora sprig or two popping out. As I looked more closely, I could see a couple of micro sprigs of Batophora on the large sea fan.

Long story short, over time the Batophora has thrived and now covers the majority of the Sea fan and make it look a bit like a living tree. I suspect it’s feeding on the nutrients in the fan as it slowly decays. It’s also established itself on several of the rocks although oddly, it doesn’t seem to have taken hold in the substrate.

In any case, I’ll keep the site updated on how the tank continues to mature.

The reactor

The original shell where it initially took hold

The sea fan “tree”

[Mustafa]

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing your progress with this species! I assume these are the descendants of the few sprigs of Batophora I sent you back in 2020. Those sprigs had spores developing on them, so those must have turned into what you see right now after the original few plants died off.
It is for that reason (likely initial die off) that I still have not listed the plant for sale in our shop. But maybe I can list it in the future with a warning that the plant may die off, but will come back (most likely) later on. Keep the updates coming!

[Corucia]

Thanks Mustafa. In not 100% sure if the ultimate population spawned from the sprigs that I picked up from you (all of which seemingly died) or a second batch that I picked up from another member a few months after your batch had seemingly died off. This second batch also seemingly died off — as I noted in my initial post — but I suspect that one or both batches must have left some remanentes of the algae / spores in the tank that ultimately took hold.

Note, I also split up the algae and deployed it to three different tanks, but only this one took. Maybe it’s particularly sensitive to water parameters. For reference, the salinity level in the tank it’s thriving in is SG 1.011.

[Mustafa]

Ahhh, I see! It was most likely spores that came back though as spores can be dormant for a long time before they turn into plants. Yes, this species does seem to be pretty sensitive, but I'm still not too sure to what. Maybe lack of nutrients. Another reason I have not offered them for sale yet...they are nowhere near as easy as the macroalgae and mossballs.

[gnomeworks]

Any new updates on this plant? I'm still hoping to get my hands on some one of these days.

[Mozzie]

Any update on the batophora?

[Corucia]

Funny you should ask Mozzie as I was going to post an update this weekend on the latest developments. In the tank that I got the Batophora to grow in, it thrived for over three years. Then out of the blue it went through a death spiral, where essentially 95% of it died over the course of 6 months with only a few juvenile sprigs remaining. Pretty much all of the mature and regularly budding / reproducing Batophora died.

It stayed that way for probably nine months and then around six months ago a new constellation of Batophora started growing. Unlike the prior colony, which was predominantly growing on a large sea fan (that began to decay, part of the problem I think), the new growth is predominantly on some of the rocks in the tank. They are now starting to bud and spread more broadly so it looks like it may be entering (hopefully) another long growth cycle. Here are some pics of the latest colony in the original tank.

After a number of failed attempts, I’ve also gotten the Batophora to germinate and survive for the first time in a new tank, where it’s starting to grow on a rock that I imported from the original tank. Every other time I’ve imported it into one of my other tanks, it’s struggled and died within a couple of months. It’s hard to figure out why, but it’s clearly a very sensitive algae species as my water chemistry and lighting cycles are pretty much identical across all of my six tanks. See a couple of pics of the new strains in my small square tank (which I’ve set up to breed the yellow hybrid Opae that I’ve found).

Will keep you apprised on how things continue to evolve.