View RSS Feed

cyano

caulerpa attack!

Rate this Entry
It has been quite a while since I have posted anything on here due to time restraints and my schedule. I did have a cyanobacteria problem which I have not had in about 6 months but you know if it isn't one thing it's another and now I have a problem with two different caulerpa infestations. Caulerpa taxifolia and grape caulerpa the grape sprouted up within the last week oddly enough nothing has been introduced to the tank in about 10 months so I assume it was all just laying dormant this whole time. My question is has anyone had any luck with a kole's, tomini, or yellow tang eating either or both types of this caulerpa as I am not enjoying this pruning process and would prefer it be eliminated entirely.

Submit "caulerpa attack!" to Digg Submit "caulerpa attack!" to del.icio.us Submit "caulerpa attack!" to StumbleUpon Submit "caulerpa attack!" to Google

Comments

  1. DJ in WV's Avatar
    my yellow tang and magnificent foxface both eat grape caulerpa I heard scribed rabbitfish eat it also and think arrow crabs but dont qoute me on that one. I dont have any experience with taxi but I think Marc runs it in his refugium maybe he will chime in here
  2. cyano's Avatar
    well I need to make sure not to get anything that is going to nibble on my corals and I have heard the foxface will, and I am afraid of the rabbitfish as well I already have enough to worry about anytime i stick my arm in the tank to add anything venomous lol, but on the bright side my clownfish have learned to love me and no longer attack my arm unrelentingly but yeah thats why tangs were high on my list for a possible addition to combat this terror of the deep
  3. DJ in WV's Avatar
    My foxface hasnt touched any of my corals he has ate a few hermit crabs. He eats from my hand if I entice him to do so other than that he always keeps a safe distance form me during maintenance in the tank. I believe anything from the reef will pick at coral and inverts if not kept well feed.
  4. cyano's Avatar
    How often do you feed him and what does he like to eat? does it need to be offered seaweed like the tangs or no? how is it with other tank mates? have you ever been stung by it? what other tank mates and corals do you have with it?
  5. DJ in WV's Avatar
    xenia, gsp, trumpet, several different types of monti sps, finger leather and mushroom leather. Yellow and hippo tang, pj cardinals, firefish, basic crab snail cuc, peppermint shrimp. Its not aggressive he and the tangs school together. I clip in some sheet algae every 3 days or so and I feed the tank 2 or 3 times a day mixed frozen and spectrum pellets. plus feed grape from the fug. Never been stung heard it like 3 to 4x a bee sting really havent seen to many post of people being stung
  6. cyano's Avatar
    well i have officially added the foxface into the decision, so I guess my question that remains is which has been better and more likely to eat caulerpa (toxifolia is one and the other after taking a much closer look today is not grape, i will do more research on it later) and any other nuisance algae between one of the bristletooth tangs, a yellow tang, and a foxface?
  7. cyano's Avatar
    i believe the other type in there may be the Caulerpa nummularia, I am not looking to put it in my sump or keep the lights on 24 hours a day, so I definitely am looking at the add a herbivore option
  8. DJ in WV's Avatar
    does look like it
  9. cyano's Avatar
    thats close, I haven't pulled it out and gazed at it, but that looks close to it, i know there are many different species that look very similar with caulerpa so i may be a species off but thats basically it
  10. melev's Avatar
    Rip out all you can manage by hand, daily. Once it is vastly reduced, add a bunch of new hungry emerald crabs to your tank and you may have the same remarkable results I had in my angled tank. I added them to get rid of valonia but they liked the caulerpa as well.
  11. cyano's Avatar
    thanks for the advice melev, I am deathly afraid of emerald crabs though I have had 3 over the years 2 of them I remember watching sword fight each other using zoos, the other came as an accident on a piece of lr and he went into my sump never to be heard from again
  12. melev's Avatar
    You can try smaller ones, even moving the zoas to a different holding tank for a duration perhaps.

    Picking it out by hand is no fun, but something you can do.
  13. cyano's Avatar
    thnx for the advice everyone, I ended up getting a yellow tang and going with that gamble, it is doing well eating aggressively everything i drop in the tank including dried nori. I have been picking the caulerpa by hand when ever it gets tall enough to grab, I have also changed salt along with quite a few water changes and the good news is that with the new salt my lps corals are starting to show some noticeable improvements with the seachem reef over the old instant ocean I had been using for the last year.
  14. DJ in WV's Avatar
    I use seachem reef and have been happy with it when mixed at 1.026 everything has checked out good. IO is fish only stuff imo tho I have heard about mixing it 50/50 with another salt with good results but that seem like a pita to me