Algae Grazing Fish For Nano
 

Anyone have any ideas of what would be a good algae grazing fish for a 25g reef tank? I get this turf algae on my rocks that looks like mini ferns, there's not a lot of it but hermits and snails don't seem to be doing anything. The fish would have to eat prepared foods as well as there is not enough algae to sustain a fish. Currently have 2 clowns and a yellow watchman goby in the tank.
Thx

bump

a blenny?... some crabs??

I would try a Mexican turbo snail, I put 2 in my 33 gal and they have done an awesome job cleaning all the algae from my tank.

I was thinking maybe something like a tail spot blenny? I have a few turbo snails already and they do a good job as I don't have any hair algae but this stuff has fronds like a fern and looks like it needs to be picked at with little teeth. There's actually very little of it but it's too short for my fingers to grab.

I know what you mean, I have a couple of hermits and have yet to see them eat any algae apart from the seaweed that I put in for the tomato clown and coral beauty. I have some red banded turbo snails. I can only speak for mine, but I had a lot of hair algae and they literally mow the stuff down when they happen to find a bit of it. I have 5 in a 27 gallon tank with quite a bit of rock and from what I can tell, they're operating a scorched earth policy... :biggrin:

As for fish that eat it, I have a coral beauty that does graze - will swim around nibbling here and there all day really nice looking fish too. I don't know whether that'd have you overstocked with a pair of clowns and the goby in there as well, or whether they'd all be compatible. I imagine the type of clowns you have would be a major factor. Others can probably give you better advice on this than myself..

Hope this helps...
Rob

Mexican turbos will do it, you may have regular turbos.

other suggestions are:

emerald crabs
Brown bar (dragon) goby

Ken - BWA

I thought of a coral beauty too, but I have some LPS and wasn't sure if they would get eaten or not. My clowns are percs, both are just under 2" long and about 4 years old. Thanks for the suggestion!

They may be regular turbos, brown shell with a fat black stripe down the middle. My biggest one now is about the size of a toonie but I just gave it's larger look alike away who got to be larger than a golf ball.
I tried a dragon goby once and it did a good job of the sand and rocks but it wouldn't eat anything I fed him and even in a 70g tank it starved to death. Do you have any mexican snails or emerald crabs at the store right now?
Thx

I have both turbos and emeralds in stock right now.

A staple for cuc, so I try to keep them around at all times.

Ken