Attached Chaetomorpha antennina is the first image on Wikipedia's Chaetomorpha page
How many of you all have come across attached Chaetomorpha, in captivity?
When I was figuring out macroalgae with my first build years ago, I discovered that Chaetomorpha is capable of attaching itself to rocks with a holdfast. My theory as to how this occurred in my system is that my excessively rough handling of the algae (as I newbie, I accidentally placed the Chaeto in my DT and shoved it in between rocks when it tumbled out of place ;Inpain) prompted it to release spores that eventually settled throughout my system's aquascape (reading through sites like marinespecies.org, it appears that Chaetomorpha can indeed reproduce in this manner). I still have some of these attached strands today:
Original Chaetomorpha clump on January 10, 2020:
Attached Chaetomorpha on September 7, 2021; I am certain this is the same Chaeto shown above, and not some generic hair algae, as the attached strands share the same, segmented, wiry composition:
Additionally, it seems as though most online images of wild Chaetomorpha show it growing attached:
Chaetomorpha linum, one of the more popular Chaetomorpha species in the trade, without the characteristic "curliness" it would display in a mound:
Chaetomorpha spiralis, another popular species:
Close up... it just looks so awesome in my opinion:
Chaetomorpha aerea:
Wicked looking Chaetomorpha coliformis:
Close up of Chaetomorpha melagonium: