The Best Golden Algae 2023. They are also called the chrysophytes. Golden algae is also commonly used to refer to a single species, prymnesium parvum , which causes fish kills.

However, the physiological mechanisms of its formation remain unclear. Both golden algae and brown algae store food outside of the chloroplast in the form of polysaccharide laminarin, or chrysolaminarin. They belong to the phylum chrysophyta, an algal phylum that includes the xanthophyte s.