Dictyota and Emerald Crabs?

[TA]

I spent some time trying to identify some "nuisance" algae I have growing in my tank. I am pretty certain it is Dictyota species (looks almost exactly like Dictyota dichotoma shown in this pic). Under halides/actinic, it almost looks brown with blue tips...out of the water, it looks more green.

According to that same web site, Emerald crabs (Mithrax sculptus shown here) can be be used as a method of control.

Does anyone have any experience in riding their tank of this algae or have any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[xian]

I would trim it back by plucking it. Also try a turbo snail as I have seen them eat similar algae. How invasive is it? If its not out of control I'd leave it and keep it trimmed.

 

[TA]

Too invasive to leave it alone; trimming all the time. Need a consumer. Naso tang should work, but not a real option. Guess I'll give the emeralds a try.

Anyone else have a similar algae in their tank..if so, what experiences have you with it?

 

[Treeman]

I had it in my prop system and was able to get rid of it with the sea slug, I think it was a Aplyasia? But they eat a lot, so if you are going to get one you will need to have a bunch of algae to feed it or a place to give it to when it eats all of the dictoya.

Matt

 

[michaelg]

This is a nasty algae- and can become problematic. Pretty toxic stuff, so many consumers won't touch it. The sea hare might be an option.

 

[Dave ESPI]

Seahare won't touch it. Not atleast the species I have .

The one in my tank is just eating filimentious ONLY, and all other algaes are being left alone.

 

[reefD]

tony have you considered removing the rock that it is on and scrubing all surface of it with a stiff brush..then rinsing in new saltwater then placing back in display? i know this is not always possible espiecially with corals or large rocks but it does help control and in some cases resolve these types of issues. the promblem in doing this is how deeply seeded is the macro in the rock? if it is only on the surface the scrubbing and rinsing will leave all spores in the rinse bucket and out of the display. if it is deeply rooted then it will return but will take a while for it to sprout up again. jsut an idea.

 

[TA]

That method has been reported to be ineffective.

 

[michaelg]

well it sounds like the seahare will do wonders for my tank! TA, I had some years ago, and it died off- no idea why. I thought it was a pretty macro until a friend told me how nasty the stuff is. Is it all over your tank, or somewhat isolated?

 

[TA]

Its spread pretty much all over. Harvesting can be an endless task....it helps, but is not a solution. Manual harvesting seems to have led to new patches popping up....pretty much what everyone else says.

Got to try some biological control...absolutely....no choice. Gonna start by trying the emeralds (cheap, convenient, easy) and sea hare (or other species of slug). Then go from there. Removing rock is not an option.

I found it interesting to read that this algae can thrive in nutrient poor tanks (while I'd like to think mine is...at least all the parameters say so...I was beginning to think I had a nutrient problem that my test kits wern't detecting).

Oh well....

 

[InvertLover]

Well, I have the same algea that you are talking about ( I think) And it's horrible. I've scrubbed my rocks and rinsed with clean salt water, soaked them in freshwater, everything, and it always comes back. I read a post on another site from a guy who cooked his rocks in no light for six months, and it was back in a few weeks. So for the best thing I've found is to let it form a huge dense mass, then the parts that attach it to the rock start to weaken, so you can pull almost all of it out at one time, without too many pieces breaking off and spreading. Having a large amount of ceato growing under a MH bulb slows it down (out competes it for some trace minerals, iron maybe?), but I've put it in newly mixed ( RODI ) saltwater with a light over it and it's thrived. My last resort may be to try an urchin, but in a small tank like mine, I'm afraid it might not survive. Also I've never found a seahare or snail that will touch it. I've had an emerald before, and never noticed it eating it before, but I may try it again. Feel free to PM me or ask for more details on this thread. It would be awesome if we can find a way to beat it!

 

[TA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7429868#post7429868 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by InvertLover
....I've put it in newly mixed ( RODI ) saltwater with a light over it and it's thrived..... Also I've never found a seahare or snail that will touch it....I've had an emerald before, and never noticed it eating it before, but I may try it again.

Interesting about the "newly mixed"!
As for seahares and emeralds, the posts I've read have been mixed...some with, some without success.

Like the idea of growing a large mass before pulling....may try that in places.

I think we're skrewd!

 

[reefD]

lol! youll recover tony!

 

[Treeman]

I had it in 3 - 4' x 4' tanks. I used green emerald crabs, which I don't think did much, and 2 Bali sea hares. It has been gone for a few monthes. We also went thru and took out any rocks that had it first but there were loads of it left.

 

[TA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7433660#post7433660 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Treeman
I had it in 3 - 4' x 4' tanks. I used green emerald crabs, which I don't think did much, and 2 Bali sea hares. It has been gone for a few monthes. We also went thru and took out any rocks that had it first but there were loads of it left.

So you think it was the bali sea hares? If so, where did you get them?

Do you think removing the rocks helped or just made the algae load a bit easier for the crabs/seahare?

Did it look like the stuff shown/described in this thread?

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=850254

 

[InvertLover]

Ditto On the bali sea hares. I tried the "Dwarf Sea Hare" which lived long enough to eat all the Caulerpa I growing, then it began to shrink, and a crab tore into it.

 

[TA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7435279#post7435279 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by InvertLover
Ditto On the bali sea hares. I tried the "Dwarf Sea Hare" which lived long enough to eat all the Caulerpa I growing, then it began to shrink, and a crab tore into it.

Ditto on the "whered you get the Bali"?

Is that the Aplysia sp.?

 

[Treeman]

It was a Bali seahare. I will get you the link for a great algae resource when I get home. And yes I had the same dictoya. There are a few different species but I doubt the controls are much different.

I think removing the rocks that had just helped the algae load. I wanted it contained asap. I have to many frags to remove and clean each one.

 

[TA]

A link would be great.
Not sure where to find a Bali seahare, though.

 

[besl]

I recently had some growing around a frag I picked up from a fellow reefer - I have 4 emerald crabs that don't touch it (in fact they don't even go near the bubble algy I heard they were good at eating). My algae was isolated, so I removed the frag/rock and scubbed it off - now we wait...