Yellow Tang vs Yellow Eye Kole Tang for Green Hair Algae

ReefTank327

New member
I've been having issues with green hair algae and have read that both of these fish will eat it. Which do you prefer and in your experiences, which eats more green hair algae?
 
Yellow tangs eat filamentous algae while kole tangs eat detritus, naturally.

Yellow would be a better bet, but maybe not a guarantee.
 
I haven't had any fish help me with hair algae. The only critters I have gotten that consistently eat hair algae are specifically hairy pincussion urchins (Tripneustes gratilla). No snails, hermit crabs, crabs, fish...
 
I have had both a yellow and a Kole tang for years, and I've never seen either eat green hair algae. My foxface lo didn't either, but he did eat bubble algae. Only critters I have that will eat it are a couple of urchins.
 
I have a virgate rabbitfish that I bought for bubble algae that was eating hair algae in the store. I don’t know if any fish can be relied to keep up with it depending on your tank size and how much you have. Personally I have used a purple pincushion urchin and Mexican turbo snails with great success. They don’t take up too much space, the urchin can be fed supplementally when the algae issue is gone and the snails could be donated to someone else if they are too efficient and start to starve. The urchin will eat coraline though which irks some people. Also, since they are a small and specialized species, you don’t have to worry about other fish getting along with them.
 
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