red algae
- Thread starter jensposma
- Start date
Not sure if any surgeon fish eat it. . Rhodophyta( red algae) are farily oligotrophic( thrive in low nutrient water) . Mexican tubo snails tend to chomp on it when it shows in my tanks; I may have a diifferent variant though, more grassy in appearance than the stuff in our picture appears to be.
petere1989
New member
in my opinion and experience, i never had any luck relying on fish or crabs or snails to get rid of any kind of algae. If you don't want it in there, pull it off by hand or take the rock out and bleach it (rinsing it over and over and over and over and...you get the point) before putting it back in the tank. Its a cool looking algae though whatever it is. As long as it wasn't getting out of control i'd probably leave it in!
I have a tommini surgeon fish but he doesn't seem to eat it at all. Because it looks good indeed I don't have to get rid of it but I want it under control 
; it's quiet fast growing.
Taking out all the rocks would really be a last resort.
Does a sea urchin might do the trick?
; it's quiet fast growing. Taking out all the rocks would really be a last resort.
Does a sea urchin might do the trick?
An urchin might do but also might graze coraline. Maybe a rabbit fish or zebrasoma tang.
If at some point you take out the rock, splashing it with standard 3% peroxide and letting it soak in for 3 to five minutes before putting it back in the tank kills red turf and may be effective on the algae you have,depending on the cell wall structure. Of course air exposureand the peroxide may kill other non targetted things on the rock.
If at some point you take out the rock, splashing it with standard 3% peroxide and letting it soak in for 3 to five minutes before putting it back in the tank kills red turf and may be effective on the algae you have,depending on the cell wall structure. Of course air exposureand the peroxide may kill other non targetted things on the rock.
My tuxedo urchin definitely ate a lot of coralline. I liked that, but your opinion might differ. Sometimes, people are lucky finding an animal to eat an alga, but more often than not, locating the right grazer is impractical. I might try some physical pruning (no more than a few minutes a week), some nutrient control, and perhaps a hydrogen peroxide or lime treatment if I got desperate. GFO sometimes helps, for example.
Let us know how it works out.
FYI, in one tank I keep I have a common rock urchin. It eats all the algae in there inlcuding the coraline. The Zebrasomma tangs I keep ( scopas, purple , sailfin and yellow) all do a pretty god job on a variety of algae and love some rohodohyta like gracilleria . Ctenochaetus tangs/ bristle tooths( Kole, Chevron, toamani) do less but scrape rock and detritus up nicely.
Anecdotally,I recently had an issue with ulva alge( a green leafy alge soemtimes known as lettuce alge) in a frag tank. I lowered the frag racks several inches to allow some swimming room for the sailfin residing there and the algae is no longer much of an issue.
FYI, in one tank I keep I have a common rock urchin. It eats all the algae in there inlcuding the coraline. The Zebrasomma tangs I keep ( scopas, purple , sailfin and yellow) all do a pretty god job on a variety of algae and love some rohodohyta like gracilleria . Ctenochaetus tangs/ bristle tooths( Kole, Chevron, toamani) do less but scrape rock and detritus up nicely.
Anecdotally,I recently had an issue with ulva alge( a green leafy alge soemtimes known as lettuce alge) in a frag tank. I lowered the frag racks several inches to allow some swimming room for the sailfin residing there and the algae is no longer much of an issue.
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