fish advice

im_buford

im_buford

New member
I find myself needing someone to eat a relatively small amount of hair algae. What species do you all reccomend. The last yellow tang I had turned into a zoo eater. And i am kind afraid to do that again. Since I had to tear all the rock out to get him. Now that the 75 is stable I dont wanna take it apart again any time soon.
Thanks
 
Not natural behavior for a Tang but you never know what they'll try in a closed environment or if they get hungry enough.

I have a Scopas Tang (Zebrasoma scopas) that does a nice job and is a beautiful fish. They are one of the hardier Tangs and very easy to take care of. Mine has never bothered my zoos or any other corals for that matter. They're herbivores but will generally eat anything that hits the water. Mine pounced on the hair algae right away. Once the algae clears up you'll need to be prepared to offer him some store bought seaweed or algae. They are always hungry and will forage for food all day long. It also helps if you have some other desirable macro algae for them to munch on. That way they aren't tempted on your corals...

There are a whole host of other fish too. The Jeweled Rock Skipper aka Lawnmower Blenny (Salarius fasciatus) does a good job also but sometimes nips at corals. A very cool fish to watch. Very readily available.

Good Luck and happy fish hunting!
 
Thanks. I even ordered the other tang different algae to munch on. But It just developed a king of the tank attitude and nipped at a lot of stuff. I had a lawnmower blenny one time that killed ALL my featherdusters. Weird. Thanks again.
Keep the recomendations coming.
 
It seems really hit and miss with getting a certin fish to take care of a certin problem. I have gotten 2 yellow tangs to help combat hair algae, only to have them turn there noses up on the stuff. I eventually had to just increase my red dwarf hermit crab population. Along with some manual brushing at first, that took care of the problem. By the way, your old 110 project is comming along great. It just finished its cycle and will be getting its first fish soon! :strooper:
 
Rabbit fish is also quite a hit and miss. I saw a few of them picking on softies at Coral Reef Aquatics.

Some rabbitfish love caulerpa, some derbasia hair algae, and some red bubble algae (a cousin of botryocladia) like my yellow lo (foxface) rabbitfish.

I recommend a Dolabella sea hare. They are known to eat various algae and they never bother anything else. When I had a dictyota (brown macro algae) outbreak, I introduced several fish and inverts including rabbit fish and sea urchins, but the best cleaner was the sea hare. It took him just one week to clean up all the dictyota covering approximately 50 lbs of rocks. I saw similar sea hares (I think they were dolabrifera) clean up 55 gallon tankful of green hair algae in a week at Lucy's Lagoon.

Here's an info on the sea hare:
http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=dolaauri
http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=doladola

Aquarium Designs had a lot of dolabella sea hare this past Saturday. Aquarium Shop also had one dolabella on Sunday.

Tomoko
 
Pincushion is great (especially for bubble algae), but they can bull doze around and cause a land slide. The pink pincushion I borrowed from 8Ball did a good job, but it kept picking up and wear my frags on its back and eventually dropped them into some rather inconvenient places to retrieve frags from. YMMV. Oh, 8Ball said that I should have pacified his urchin with its favorite blue bio ball to keep it from picking up frags.

Tomoko
 
I got a couple of the sea hares after the meeting and they are at work. They seem to be doing a good job so far.

Thanks Tomoko for showing me those Sat.
 
I only have a small amount of hair algae. I dont really want to drive to BHM from Haleyville. But I may have to. How much were they Mary? I bet I will spend more on GAS than anything and work is really big right now it is hard to get away.
Thanks Again I thing the sea hare is the way to go.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7858406#post7858406 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MaryBebo
I got a couple of the sea hares after the meeting and they are at work. They seem to be doing a good job so far.

Thanks Tomoko for showing me those Sat.
Click to expand...

Problem with sea hares is they eat the HA faster than it can grow.....then they starve.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7862171#post7862171 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by twkenny
Problem with sea hares is they eat the HA faster than it can grow.....then they starve.
Click to expand...


Yea, They told me that too. They said people usually bring them back and trade for something else. Right now they have enough to keep them alive for a while. I don't want to let them just starve. I will take them back or give them to another reefer who needs them.
 
Well I dont have enough for one to live on so I think i will just pull out the affected rocks and one pump and clean it off. Just two little patches. Thanks for all the advice folks.
 
IMO, the thing about hair algae is figuring out what is causing it. Finding something to eat it is fine as long as you are working on the cause of the problem.
 
Have you tried a Mexican turbo snail? They are good at cleaning up algae as well. However, if it's just a matter of a patch or two, I agree with you. I'd take the rock out and use a toothbrush on the spots. I have even resorted to spot cleaning an area with vinegar before (a 2 gallon pico tank). Vinegar will kill algae. Then rinse the spot well and put the rock back in. I did not have any problem afterward.

Tomoko
 
Thanks, Tomoko it is just a couple small patches. I have a little green on the back wall. But thankfully NO cyano. LOL
 
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