Bubble algae

[LaskoFamilyReef]

Hey guys I'm having a small outbreak of bubble algae in my DT , I've tried siphoning it out during water changes and physically removing it with no luck . that being said I bought an emerald crab and the first thing he did was burrow into my hydnophora and go to town eating it :mad2: . does anyone else here have any advice or experience with this ? I would like to rid my system of this and save my corals from the hungry emerald (hes in the sump for now).

 

[jda123]

Magnificent foxface would destroy it for me - they get big, though. I have never had an emerald misbehave. However, somebody might want a hydnophora eating crab.

Where did you get the emerald? Are you sure that it is a reef-safe (er) one from the Eastern Caribbean?

 

[LaskoFamilyReef]

I'm embarrassed to admit it was from petco , I was picking up food for my dog and figured I would stop by and take a peek at their selection of saltwater stuff . I'm not sure as to which species of emerald it is . it was extremely frustrating when i saw him on top of my huge colony (way bigger than a softball) of hydnophora snapping lil chunks off .

 

[jda123]

They will eat anything rather than starve. Perhaps that is what it was doing at PetCo. Take a small rock with some bubbles out of your tank and put it in the sump and see if it cleans them. It likely will. IME, they prefer to eat algae first, scavenge second, but will eat whatever it can catch before it starves.

 

[LaskoFamilyReef]

definitely , I'll give that a shot and see what happens . The only thing that worries me is that there was a small amount of algae growing on my coral i thought he was cleaning until i looked closer . I'll try that and post my results back

 

[ReefCheif]

peroxide dip maybe? Im not 100% sure if it helps with bubble algae or not, I know it works wonder for hair algae

 

[LaskoFamilyReef]

Right on good to know thank you .

 

[Jeremiah]

This reminds me, time to pull my emerald crab and replace him. I make sure to buy small ones, i've read they are usually less aggressive when smaller/younger. As they get larger they supposably get more aggressive. Mine has been in tank a while (model citizen as far as i've seen) but he's gone through a quite a few molts and i've noticed him swinging at fish that swim by.

Hey guys I'm having a small outbreak of bubble algae in my DT , I've tried siphoning it out during water changes and physically removing it with no luck . that being said I bought an emerald crab and the first thing he did was burrow into my hydnophora and go to town eating it :mad2: . does anyone else here have any advice or experience with this ? I would like to rid my system of this and save my corals from the hungry emerald (hes in the sump for now).

 

[LaskoFamilyReef]

This reminds me, time to pull my emerald crab and replace him. I make sure to buy small ones, i've read they are usually less aggressive when smaller/younger. As they get larger they supposably get more aggressive. Mine has been in tank a while (model citizen as far as i've seen) but he's gone through a quite a few molts and i've noticed him swinging at fish that swim by.

I have a mated pair of clowns and at night before the white leds shut off he sits on my hydnophora and swings at them stupid crab

 

[Jeremiah]

I have a mated pair of clowns and at night before the white leds shut off he sits on my hydnophora and swings at them stupid crab

When mine was smaller his reaction wasn't to attack...or swing. It was to scurry and hide, definately a difference behavior.

I want my crabs to exhibit the flight reaction not the fight...soon as i see them fight back I try and catch and pull them.

edit: i do only have a nano tank so catching things for me is pretty easy compaired to trying to catch something in larger tanks.