bubble alge

[Guest Rileyporter]

Isnt there some type of crab that will eat it? Also what about aptasia? sorry for the spelling..

 

Riley

[bludevil12]

Isnt there some type of crab that will eat it? Also what about aptasia? sorry for the spelling..

 

Riley

 

The Mithrax crab (or Emerald) is generally reknown for eating bubble algae, although some people have little success. Peppermint shrimps are known to eat Aptasia, but I find Joe's Juice to be just as effective. Hope that helps.

[jason the filter freak]

I'll second the emrald crab... however if you get the small ones, they will tend to inadvertantly spread the stuff about your tank as they eat it.

[quazi]

As someone who has had valonia in my tank for over 10 years, I have found that there are a few good animals that will eat it. However, it is difficult to eradicate. For me, impossible.

 

Here are my findings:

 

1. buy a foxface (Vulpinus Lo) and emerald crabs. I was told other rabbit fish will eat valonia, but that has not worked out for me. I now have beautiful blue line Rabbit fish that eats almost anything but valonia.

 

2. Manually remove the valonia. For big rock infestations, remove the rock from the tank and use a tooth brush and scrub and rinse. Pick them out with your fingers where you can. I use an airline hose and rigid airline tube to get the valonia where I cannot reach individual bubbles with my fingers. I start a siphon and with the rigid tube grab the bubble. I remove it by hand or poke it and it gets sucked up by the siphon. There is concern about spores in the bubble. The siphon does a good job of sucking those up with the bubble shell.

 

Valonia gets into everything: under mushrooms, in between SPS- everywhere. Get rid of it now, and perhaps you will be able to rid your tank of it.

 

Good luck!

 

Mike