Habits
Saprolegnia, like most water moulds, is both a saprotroph and necrotroph. Typically feeding on waste from fish or other dead cells, they will also take advantage of creatures that have been injured or compromised eggs. When they inhabit a live animal, they exhibit as a fungal infection known as mycoses.
Saprolegnia is tolerant to a wide range of temperature, 3°C to 33°C, but is more prevalent in lower temperatures. While it is found most frequently in freshwater, it will also tolerate brackish water and even moist soil.
Saprolegnia filaments (hyphae) are long with rounded ends, containing the zoospores. Saprolegnia generally travels in colonies consisting of one or more species. They first form a mass of individual hyphae. When the mass of hyphae grows large enough in size to be seen without use of a microscope, it can be called a mycelium. Colonies are generally white in color, though they may turn grey under the precesence of bacteria or other debris which has become caught in the fibrous mass.
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