What kind of Algae is this?
- Thread starter mike89t
- Start date
graveyardworm
Premium Member
mike89t
Premium Member
I've done a little bit of research. If anyone can add any more to what I've found that would be great or even correct me if I'm wrong.
It apears that Dictyota tends to be an aggressive Macro algae in reef aquariums. If you are not careful removing it, it can spread really easily! Not many things eat it except for Naso Tangs, Virgate Rabbitfish, Dolabella seahares and maybe Diadema Longspine urchins.
Here is another thread on it that I found:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=400988&highlight=dictyota
It apears that Dictyota tends to be an aggressive Macro algae in reef aquariums. If you are not careful removing it, it can spread really easily! Not many things eat it except for Naso Tangs, Virgate Rabbitfish, Dolabella seahares and maybe Diadema Longspine urchins.
Here is another thread on it that I found:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=400988&highlight=dictyota
Samala
New member
Those rabbits are some of my absolute favorite fish! Good luck with him as a macro predator. Hopefully he'll do the job on the Dictyota. By the way, is your softball clump of it fluorescing? This genus often expresses a green to blue fluorescence under high light. Rather pretty.. if you like algae. 
>Sarah
>Sarah
mike89t
Premium Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7364459#post7364459 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Samala
Those rabbits are some of my absolute favorite fish! Good luck with him as a macro predator. Hopefully he'll do the job on the Dictyota. By the way, is your softball clump of it fluorescing? This genus often expresses a green to blue fluorescence under high light. Rather pretty.. if you like algae.
>Sarah
Not really fluorescing. Still looks just like the photo above but only larger now. At first I was excited by the Dictyota growth as it does sort of look nice. Then I saw how fast it grows and it kind of scared me.
InvertLover
New member
If you can, remove the rock it's on. If it's already spread, you're going to have a time controling it! Let us know if the rabbitfish likes it!
graveyardworm
Premium Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7364360#post7364360 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mike89t
Here is my new hope at removing this algae. He is currently in my QT so I don't know if he will do the job yet:
Looks alittle thin, feed him well. My experience with rabbitfish has shown that they require almost constant grazing to do well. Make sure to provide dried nori or something similar on a regular basis. Also know that not all rabbitfish are reefsafe. So far my foxface has been well behaved, but I had a masked rabbitfish ( Siganus Puellis ) that had a taste for mushrooms.
mike89t
Premium Member
It actually growing on my Reef ceramics so there is no way I can physically remove it. Here is a photo of the reef ceramics to give you an idea of why I can't remove them:
I moved the Rabbit fish over to the main display tank. I've seen him take several nibbles on this stuff. I'm optimistic that "Bugs" will eventually take care of this stuff for me. Will keep you posted.
Oh and I made sure to fatten him up while in the QT tank. He went to town on all the macro I had growing in there.
Last edited:
InvertLover
New member
Ah, That would be hard to remove. I do hope the fish will control it. This stuff can be awful. Let me know how the fish does, and here's a link to an active thread about the stuff as will.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=7435894#post7435894
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=7435894#post7435894
Keep us posted on how effective "Bugs" turns out to be. Spent 2.5 hours manually pulling last evening....about 1/2 quart or the stuff.
Yeah....mine has these intense fluorescent blue tips when viewed "just right"....don't care how nice it looks....I want it gone!<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7364459#post7364459 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Samala
...By the way, is your softball clump of it fluorescing? This genus often expresses a green to blue fluorescence under high light. Rather pretty.. if you like algae.
>Sarah
