Will an urchin eat grape caulerpa

[TBone303]

Will an sea urchin eat grape caulerpa?


Thanks

Tony

 

[skeeter-doc]

probably not

try a tang or foxface

 

[Mr31415]

Of the 8 or so different ones I have, I have never seen them graze filamentous algae - only short hair algae, calcareous algae and other micro algae species.

 

[TBone303]

will urchins eat coralline algae off the glass?

 

[Mr31415]

Mine does.

 

[Dino]

I've never seen mine even touch several different types of caulerpa (and I used to have a major outbreak of grape, blade, and fern that came in on some rock). It'd wander right through the middle of a forest of the darn stuff and not take a bite from it. On the other hand it does do a heck of a job for stuff growing on the glass!

 

[Sk8r]

tripneustes gratillis will---but can't get the roots. This urchin is available from Foster/Smith.
What finally got my grape caulerpa, after 2 years and every cure known to man including cooking the rock---a meaningful refugium. I literally watched it fade to transparency and die. I have some growing in the fuge itself [unintentionally: my algae of choice is cheato] but it does not root in the display.

Dinoman, what urchin do you have that eats glass-growing algae?

 

[unclereefer]

Grape Caulerpa is the root of all evil! It has me at the brink of giving up the hobby all together. Maybe Satan eats it?

 

[TBone303]

I understand your pain unclereefer I would rather have hair algae than grape caulerpa.

 

[skeeter-doc]

I had a bad outbreak in my display tank, but luckily for me, my powder blue tang ate it all up! woo-hoo!

 

[bostondevin]

Yes absolutely

Yes absolutely

I have a regular black urchin and a tuxedo urchin (has striped spikes) and they both went to town on a bunch of grape caulepra I added about a week ago. They both doubled in size and their spikes got a lot longer after the feast. Too bad the bunch of grape cost me $30 (Thanks Fosters/Smith) - I saved a little in my refugium and it's doing fine, so it's not a total loss.

 

[Sk8r]

tripneustes gracilis will. But have your rocks cemented. This is a short-spined urchin that grows fast, and grows large. It respects corals and rapidly passes over or avoids them, but will happily shove the rock it's on coral-side down in the sand.

 

[Palting]

Grape Caulerpa is the root of all evil! It has me at the brink of giving up the hobby all together. Maybe Satan eats it?

I eat it. BWA-HAH-HAH!! . Actually tastes good with some tomatoes.

 

[AquaticEngineer]

My purple urchins in my coldwater tank literally ate the paint off of the plastic back of the tank.

 

[Fishfish0001]

My urchin eats about anything food like in the tank. Munches away at all types of stuff, and doesn't really bother the rock work (thankfully). About the only thing in my tank not destroyed by the Clownfish.

Tank is so clean I have to feed him every week or so just so he leaves some corraline on the rocks :lol: