Green algae do not eat large carnivorous fish!

Last Thursday, my class was having Biology lesson. We are currently studying the topic Dynamic Ecosystem. My teacher, Pn. Norliza, explained to us about food web and then called out a few of my classmates to take turn linking and creating a food web of a freshwater pond. Tadpoles and water fleas eat green algae. Mosquito larvae and water snails eat green algae. Small fish eat all of the above. Large carnivorous fish eat small fish.

Then Pn. Norliza called out my name. Darn. I didn't have any idea how else to link the food web. But I remembered reading from my reference book the day before that fungi decompose eagles and rabbits and other plants. So without thinking twice, I automatically wrote green algae again at the end of the food web and linked it to large carnivorous fish. Green algae decompose large carnivorous fish. Hah! So smart of me! After all, no one thought of that. And somebody got to finish off the evil big fish right?

Turned out, I could not have been more wrong. After the food web was done, Pn. Norliza went through the whole thing with us. When she reached the part I wrote, she was like, "Apa ni? Tiba-tiba green algae eat large carnivorous fish?". No wonder no one thought of that. It was never right. But I wouldn't have sounded so dumb if she had used the word 'decompose' instead of 'eat'.

Lesson of the day: Green algae are producers, not decomposers. And they are green for goodness sake! They get energy from the sun, not large carnivorous fish, dead or alive. Time and time again I have to remind myself to stop confusing algae with fungi. Stupid algae!