What are these black bubbles and should I be worried?

[Webmanny]

Hey guys,

I have found about 3 or so black bubbles on my rocks recently. I have not been able to get any good shots of them, but I stumble upon this picture online which has the very same bubbles that I have seen on my tank and it is of very good quality. Can you guys share with me any knowledge you may have and should I be worried and do something about this?

They are the ones right above the green coral to the left of the photo.

 

[chealy]

Looks like bubble algae to me.

 

[Webmanny]

I think you are right. I have never seen this before in my tank. I just finished my battle with GHA and now starts the battle with bubble algae. *smh*

Back to the LFS to get some crabs that will eat this one. This fight never ends.

Thank you for confirming my fears.

 

[BryanS4]

Emerald crabs did a good job on the little that I had, then the turned to munching on Acans. Needless to say I got rid of them quickly.

 

[Webmanny]

LOL. That sucks. sorry to hear that Bryan, but I've been there too. The solution eventually becomes a problem itself.

I'll get a few of them and keep an eye on them once they are done with the bubble.

 

[listen2bob]

The key with emerald crabs is to get small females only

 

[Vorog]

The key with emerald crabs is to get small females only

+1 I had issues with the large emeralds. I now have one small female

 

[Webmanny]

Hmm. This is very interesting. I'll try to make sure my LFS knows the difference. Thank you for the heads up.

 

[Webmanny]

So, does this look correct based on your experience? Just want to make sure before I buy them.

 

[kcsnook]

I have had success removing by hand being careful not to rupture. Water changes I just siphoned them out too. My fox face actually makes short work of all algae including bubble.

Best of luck,

 

[listen2bob]

So, does this look correct based on your experience? Just want to make sure before I buy them.

Correct for most species of crabs

 

[rone_kevin66]

My lawnmower has made fast work on my GHA AND the few bubbles I had on a frag.

 

[FishN00b83]

I'm currently dealing with the same problem but I'd be careful with emerald crabs. a lot of them won't eat the bubble algae and some will go after your sps (which I see you have in your tank). I am manually removing them, running GFO, and trying to keep my water quality as high as possible. if be ****ED if I saw a crab eating my sps