Room for a Rabbitfish?

[LCDRDATA]

My DT is a 75-gallon mixed reef. Current fish include 1 each leopard wrasse, Kole tang, engineeer goby, Randall's Shrimp goby; 2 each green chromis, yellow-tailed blue damsel, false percula clown. All fish resident at least a year and at or close to full adult size. I may also be adding 1-2 saltwater-adapted mollies.

 

It has been suggested a rabbitfish (foxface or one-spot foxface) could help with my algae problem (see thread "GHA from H-E-double hockey sticks) but I wonder if there's really room in my tank for an additional fish that size. I suppose theoretically I could get one, let it do its thing and then remove it, but the idea of finding a new home and trying to catch it make that theory dubious in practice, at least in my mind. Especially since nothing else that is supposed to eat this stuff has touched it so far. Any thoughts/experience? THANKS!

[steveoutlaw]

You should be fine. Only 2 tangs and the rest are small fish. I would suggest looking at some of the other rabbitfish like a gold spot, 2 bar or scribbled.

 

What type of algea are you having a problem with?

[LCDRDATA]

You should be fine. Only 2 tangs and the rest are small fish. I would suggest looking at some of the other rabbitfish like a gold spot, 2 bar or scribbled.

 

What type of algea are you having a problem with?

I don't know about the 2 bar or scribbled, but the gold spot - while admittedly a pretty fish - is supposed to get over a foot long, which I think is just too big for my tank.

 

As best I can tell the algae is a mix of GHA and turf types, including bryopsis. The saga is on my thread that I put the link to in the original post.

[mogurnda]

I have a scribbled (doliatus), which is one of the smallest. Because of its appetite, it has grown pretty quickly to a size that is a bit large for my 90 gallon. Because it tends to be more sedate than a tang, it is not a huge problem, but I think a 75 is probably too small. My current rabbitfish and the foxface I had before were good buddies with kole tangs, so that would be a good match. Having seen Brian Ward's giant goldspot, I would say they get too big for anything smaller than a pond.

[Jon Lazar]

I have a ~4" scribbled rabbitfish in my 55g frag tank. He does a great job keeping it clear of any sort of hair algae, but I think he may be picking at my zoanthid frags as well so I'm looking to re-home him and will be posting him for sale soon.

Edited July 8, 2012 by Jon Lazar

[Marc Weaver]

I have 2 foxfaces and they eat short hair algae only. I still have to manually remove the long stuff. They will destroy some caulerpa, though. I feed it to them sometimes and they eat it out of my hand.

[angel not fish]

in all the stores that I have been this weekend they have a baby foxface. You can get one and when grown do you sell it if its necessary.

[LCDRDATA]

I have a ~4" scribbled rabbitfish in my 55g frag tank. He does a great job keeping it clear of any sort of hair algae, but I think he may be picking at my zoanthid frags as well so I'm looking to re-home him and will be posting him for sale soon.

Did you have a price range in mind?

[Jon Lazar]

I was going to post him for $40.

[LCDRDATA]

I was going to post him for $40.

How soon do you need him to go? My wife likes the look but isn't convinced yet about potential size. Price certainly seems reasonable. Thanks!