Grape caulerpa question

[MrMikeB]

Hey all,

I recently acquired some corals that are attached to rocks in a a tank that is loaded with grape caulerpa. It looks more like a refugium this tank. I want to move the coral into my main tank, but do not wish to have that grape caulerpa take hold. I have emerald crabs whom I think love this stuff. Any recommendations? Can I place the rocks (small) in and let the crabs have a feast and not worry about it having much a chance to get a foot hold or would that just be asking for trouble?

Oh the corals cannot be easily removed from their rocks so I will not be able to pull them off and attach them to another.

 

[Justin74]

Funny you should mention ask about this. As I was fighting with it for about 30 min. on a 1" X 1" area if that gives you an idea of the colorfull words I was using during that time. Now multiply your assumption of what those words were by 10 :lol2: I didnt even add it in the tank but hitchiked in unseen, and I stare HARD at my tanks so you know it was maybe a spec if I didnt catch it Next thing I know, 2 years later Im pulling it out by the handfulls. Ive now managed to keep it down to two 1 inch squares in the tank. Critters that may pick or eat at it can also inadvertantly spread it through the tank. Just from a crab snipping at it and coincidentally sending a minute piece of it into the water column where it can settle in a nook or cranny elsewhere is all it take for proliferation to happen.

Me with hind sight being 20/20, Id either snap,cut, or chizel them corals off before gettin those guys in there. Funny, there another one of those algaes that look so dang cool, but really can be oppressive if not controlled.

-Justin

 

[pepe.king.prawn]

I think if you do a decent job picking the caulerpa off of there you should be okay. It grows fast, but it's not an algae, so it won't usually mystically appear. The emerald crabs may or may not eat it, they're better known for eating bubble algae.

 

[MrMikeB]

Sweet Jesus... So when people use this stuff in a refugium, how does it not spread to the rest of the tank if it multiplies so quickly like this? I mean does it ever get a little piece past the pumps?

This stuff is beginning to scare me.

 

[Sk8r]

Smile. It DOES spread to the tank.

I have tried crabs, snails, a rabbit [also liked green corals], an urchin [grew an inch in my tank and couldn't reach the roots in the crevices] and finally, in desperation, took on a purple tang that had demonstrated [in the lfs] a taste for grape caulerpa. The tang got it and has done nothing else but traumatize one of my gobies. WHen I move this spring, I will have to give up the tang, as just too much for a 52g, but I hope by then it will be, as the Munchkin said, not merely dead, but most sincerely dead.

 

[MrMikeB]

Sk8, so do you think I should keep those coral rocks as far from my tank as possible or are there ways to not lose the corals? One of the hammers has some encrusting to its skeletal portion, and a couple others actually attached to it and the rock (so its embedded within the stalk).

 

[DrDNA]

Keep in mind too that grape Caulerpa, if it is C. racemosa, is one of the "banned" species of Caulerpa in California. Don't mean to hijack!

 

[MrMikeB]

Well I think somebody forgot to tell the caulerpa that.

 

[DrDNA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8933528#post8933528 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MrMikeB
Well I think somebody forgot to tell the caulerpa that.

yeah no kidding!

 

[Sk8r]

Can you use a chisel or screwdriver to break the rock and get very little of it? That might work.

There's also a person I've talked to who has sacoglossan slugs and is trying to devise a way to market same: they're death on caulerpa and don't seem to bother other things. You might put out a feeler after those slugs in RC, and become a test case.

 

[Justin74]

How is Calaurpa racemosa not an algae

Not only can it spread from the sump, but Calaurpa also is comprised of toxic terpenes which deter animals from there pallets. Also terpenes are blamed for being toxic to corals especially stonies, and inhibit health and proliferation. Everytime a vine dies, broken, or chewed terpenes get released into the water column. Yet another form of underwater allopathy. And you thought it was just leathers!

-Justin

 

[DarkDevil]

I can't say enough of this when I see ppl talking about grape caulerpa: GET IT OUT WHILE U CAN!!! it pretty much killed one of my old tank, I let it grow in the refugium at first like everybody else. Then somehow some got into the main tank and got stuck at the back, I was like, it's not gonna grow back there, there's not enough light back there, so I just left it. man was I wrong. it quickly taken over the back of the tank, then spread like wild fire to the front. and I can't stop it no more no matter what I do, finally I have to let all the LR die out and brush them in DI water to get all the roots out... nightmare... so... good luck

 

[MrMikeB]

The corals attached to the rocks I am interested in are blastos and a couple of really nice zoas. They seemed really attached to those rocks, and are not in the best shape to begin with. I surely do not want the stuff taking over the tank, but when I did manage to get the hammer coral in there, I noticed my crabs swarm all over any piece I left off. I am not sure if they can get the 'roots,' but they sure seem like they love to eat the stuff.

 

[pbetito]

I have a tiny bit of it growing in my tank as we speak Mike. I am probably going to remove the 15 pound piece of LR that it is on killing off an entire red mushroom colony that coexists with it. Thery are gorgeous BUT I am not going to risk it.
Blasto= $40
Hammer=$25
zoo's=$50
Bubble algae ruining your prize reef= Permanent

Good luck!!