hair algea eaters

[reefslugs]

Whats the best guys for eating hair alae?

 

[olemiss reb]

Sea Hare.

 

[Elysia]

Maybe, but...
most sea hares don't have very long life spansl;
most sea hares come into the hobby near the end of their lives;
sea hares will eat all types of macro algae;
sea hares can be killed by power heads, filter intakes, overflows, nipping fish and picking inverts;
most sea hares consume a lot of food (and thus may need supplemental food in the form of nori) and produce a far amount of waste.

I'll just say it, since I'm sure someone will at some point: your best solution is getting at the root of the problem (the nutrients feeding the algae problem) and manual removal by the human reefkeeper. Sorry, but I've heard it so many times myself...

 

[Airwolf75]

Snakehead Cowrie, Arabic Cowrie

 

[jon1985]

I got a small emrald crab to deal with some GHA. I got it hoping I would be lucky and it would eat it and it has done a stellar job. Hopfully he doesnt do any damage to anything down the road.

 

[3steele]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15381552#post15381552 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Airwolf75
Snakehead Cowrie, Arabic Cowrie

While small, it will eat some algae and scavenge for scraps, but as an adult, it will eat some anemones, sponges, and soft corals.

Turbo Snails: Have a huge appetite for all kinds of algae the only problem with them is they will knock over loose rocks and corals.

I would stick to the emerald crab or the ruby crab they eat it rather well. Most of your hermits will eat it also.

If you want something cheap that you can load up on go with the Banded Trochus Snails they will eat hair algae, film algae, diatoms and cyano. And the plus to these little guys is they can flip themselves over so you don't have to stick your hands in the aquarium everytime a snail decides to be dumb.

 

[650-IS350]

A mix of banded trochus ( can right them selves if they fall over ), Mexican Turbos and scarlet hermit/ blue knuckle hermits crabs for the shorter HA.

 

[Ken_wied]

I will attest to the cowrie snail's cora eating habits.. Woke up one morning to my devil's hand being "skinned" on one side, and the cowrie on the other side going to town on the rest of it. The snail now resides in my sump.

 

[Airwolf75]

There's a whole bunch of different cowries, that eat a whole bunch of different things.