Wrasses as algae control?

[gflat65]

I've been watching my solarensis wrasse munching down on caulerpa (razor, grape vine and racemosa). It eats the foliage first, then hits the roots, but doesn't do so much on the rhizome. I hadn't heard much of wrasses eating algae so I thought I'd see who else has seen this.

 

[Mikeyjer]

My Velvet Wrasse eats nori if that count....

 

[gflat65]

Is he voracious, or just , well if it's there, I'll munch? I hadn't heard much on wrasses eating algae. Interesting.

 

[rcmike]

I have never seen one eat algae before. Maybe your wrasse has turned vegitarian. Save the copepods man!

 

[cee]

probably munching pods on the caulerpa and getting a little roughage in his diet as a bonus.

 

[gflat65]

There is almost no foliage on the caulerpa (few roots off of the rhizome, too). As long as it can sustain it in the quantities it is eating (plenty of pods in there too), I'm happy. It's belly is fat. It is a weird super light color sometimes, so I wasn't sure if it was a mood or a reaction. It will lose almost all color, then put it all back on within the next two hours or so (not instantaneous like other fishes I've seen).

 

[ct_vol]

My Christmas wrasse attacks the Nori when I put it in there... There isn't any caulerpa in my tanks, thank GOD...

 

[fishdoc11]

All of my wrasses dig Nori

Never heard of one eating caulerpa though. Is that the razor caulerpa Gary?

 

[NeveSSL]

:lol:

OT

Chris... love the Santa hats, man.

Brandon

*Now back to our normally scheduled thread*

 

[mamagoose45]

Gary, our devil six-line would hang out around the algae clip when we would feed the rabbitfish and definitely munched on the nori a bit. Now if only we could train her to eat some hair algae, we'd be in business and she'd be good for something other than fish massacres...

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11250430#post11250430 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gflat65
Is he voracious, or just , well if it's there, I'll munch? I hadn't heard much on wrasses eating algae. Interesting.

He fights with the tangs and the rabbit fish for the nori, he would take off with it and all the other fish would follow. This Wrasse eats anything I put in the tank. I've never seen it eating bryopsis or razor caluerpa because Regal and the Foxface ate'em down....All of my fish eats nori, including green chromis and clown fish.

 

[gflat65]

Chris-razor, grapevine, racemosa, etc. It rips away at it. I'm loving it, as long as it doesn't turn out detrimental. I pulled a bunch of caulerpa out this weekend thinking that if I kept it low, the wrasse might be able to keep it to a reasonable level. Now I'm having second thoughts. I've noticed that the wrasse loses all color for a few hours at a time (has some color around the head and along the lateral line, but not much; it always regains full color in the same day). I'm wondering if the algae diet may be the cause...

I'll have to try some Nori and se how they react. Shakes used to tear it up.

 

[fishdoc11]

Caulerpa is toxic to some fish. I don't know how toxic or what the agent is but I think I've read it's typically not good for that to be a large portion of a fish's diet. On the other hand a fish that eats caulerpa and not corals is a pretty good find IMO