Aiptasia/Bubble Algae/Bristleworm Plan of Attack

[Ryan S]

So I have some minor bubble algae in my tank in a couple spots; some aiptasia in more than a few spots; have been battling zoa eating spiders; and bristleworms all over the place. Rather than manually remove the bubble algae, bristleworms, spiders, or use joe's juice on each aiptasia; I was thinking of adding certain inverts/fish that were known to eat all of the above, to, "naturally" attempt to fix these problems. Just one caveat, whatever I add must be peaceful and reef-safe. This is what I'm leaning towards:

 

1 Copperband Butterfly

5 Peppermint Shrimp

1 Wrasse (Sixline?)

 

I'm also considering:

1 Neon Dottyback (too aggressive?)

1 Arrow Crab

5 Emerald Crabs

1 Yellow Wrasse

1 Radiant Wrasse

 

What advice/opinions do you guys have for what I should get? I've been told the sixline wrasse will become a bully when it gets bigger, so if there is a more peaceful wrasse, like the yellow or radiant, I'd rather get them.

 

Thanks,

Ryan

[epleeds]

as for aptasia control, the best bet is true peppermint shrimp. the copperband's are hit/miss with their poor survival rate. for the bristle worms, the only thing i know that will eat them are the arrow crabs. but when they get bigger they will kill small fish and are not really reef safe IMO. the 6 line is also hit/miss for being a bully, I like yellow wrasses but they wont eat the bristle worms. the emerald crabs are pretty good for the bubble algea.

 

One thing I did was at night, I would remove the bristle worms by hand. I would use a gloved hand and find them using a flashlight and just reach in and pull them out. I mainly got the really big ones, and left the little ones since they are good scavengers.

 

As for the bubble algae, I manually removed those too during a water change. I would spear them with the airline tubing and suck them right out of the tank.

 

As for the zoa eating spiders, thankfully i have never had to deal with them.

 

good luck..

[treesprite]

The dottyback would more than likely eat the peppermint shrimp - my Orchid dottyback had my pepps in hiding nearly 24-7, and within 2 weeks all peppermint shrimp became dottyback snacks because they themselves had to come out of hiding to eat.

 

If you feel you still MUST get a dottyback, the Orchid is the least aggressive, and compared to a damsel is passive. The only reason I got rid of mine is that it doesn't like fish it's same shape, so it didn't get along with my firefish.

 

I would not trust an arrowcrab with small fish.

 

Something to remember about emerald crabs eating valonia, is that they can't eat large valonia balls whole, so the valonia breaks open and the problem gets worse instead of better.