Care for Feather Caulpera?

[55semireef]

So how does Caulpera thrive in a tank? I have Tek T5 lighting thats sopports my reef tank. Can I just buy Caulpera and place it in the sand and thats it? Sorry for the newb questions. I know nothing about marine plants. I also heard that if you see whit tips on the Caulpera its Asexual and that you should remove it at once. IS that true?


Thanks

 

[graveyardworm]

Caulerpa can be invasive and very difficult to erradicate once established. Yep you can just buy it and place it in your tank. If you have fish that you feed regularly then there should be plenty of nutrients. Make sure to keep it pruned back. The white tips like you describe is normal and is the growing tip. When the caulerpa goes sexual its usually the entire plant which bleaches and soon after it disintegrates.

 

[55semireef]

I have a purple tang that can keep the caulpera down.

 

[graveyardworm]

Caulerpa contains toxins which most herbivours do not like, so relying on the fish may not be enough.

 

[55semireef]

Will a purple tang like it? I have read where yellow tangs have kept down feather caulpera before.


And if my purple tang will not be enough, I guess I will be doing trimmings. Thats ok though since now I am doing routinely trimmings of my xenia. Thanks for the information graveyardworm.

 

[Dave Legacy]

one of my LFSs has some Feather Caulerpa and I'm kinda intersted, but I've been trying to fight the urge to buy it for some time. If it's going to be in a tank with only macro/plants and I don't care if it's evasive is there still a problem with keeping it? If it goes sexual my live stock will certainly die, correct?

 

[graveyardworm]

If it goes sexual my live stock will certainly die, correct?

The sporalation event is usually preceded by the plant turning white. So there is some advance warning. Whether it kills anything may be dependent on the amount of caulerpa involved, the system capacity (gallons), the effectiveness of the skimmer, and possibly carbon use.

 

[55semireef]

Why can it be so harmful when it turns white?

 

[graveyardworm]

Not sure if its the matter which gets released when it sporulates decaying, or the toxins that caulerpa contains getting released or a combination of the two.

 

[55semireef]

Thanks

 

[GobyJohnKenobi]

I have read that when the caleurpa goes sexual the spores that are released are free swimming and consume oxygen.

If their numbers are great enough, they will consume all of the available oxygen in the system possibly resulting in its crash.

 

[graveyardworm]

Not sure about the free swimming part, but I would imagine all that deacaying material released all at once, could cause an ammonia spike, a CO2 spike, and resulting PH drop, all of which could be detrimental to other tank inhabitants.

 

[55semireef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8219467#post8219467 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by graveyardworm
Not sure about the free swimming part, but I would imagine all that deacaying material released all at once, could cause an ammonia spike, a CO2 spike, and resulting PH drop, all of which could be detrimental to other tank inhabitants.

Thats true. See i don't want to get involved in that mess if that were to happen.