Rhodymenia holmesii

[Snufflupagus]

Hello,

Looking for some help on knowing what to do with what looks to be Rhodymenia holmesii in my tank. Is it harmful to my tank? Is there a way to get rid of it? Any suggestions or help would be great.

Thanks,

[fishytime]

Are you sure thats what you have? Seems strange that you have an algae that is known to inhabit mainly the coast Britain and Ireland? Looks very similar to dictyota....is that what you have?

[Snufflupagus]

i've attached a photo (hope it worked) to help identify it first of all. Does this help?

[BlueAbyss]

Hmm, it's hard to tell but I'd almost +1 Dichtyota spp. if it weren't for the color... Dichtyota is a brown algae (though some species look iridescent blue). Other than that, my best guess is some type of Halymenia in an early stage of growth.

These macros aren't generally harmful (might be a little chemical warfare between the Halymenia and stony corals) and some types of Halymenia (the ones that used to be called Gracillaria) are known as 'tang heaven' since tangs love the stuff. My biggest worry with macros is them overgrowing and crowding out corals (I have to prune my Dichtyota regularly or it will overtake some of my zoas).

[Snufflupagus]

Thanks for the guesses, sorry I couldn't get a better picture. That's funny you mention about "tang heaven" because my blue tang died a bit ago, and ever since this red algae or sea weed is kind of coming out of the blue more and more. Any suggestions on which tangs would eat this kind of algae better then others?

[ColinD]

Looks very similar to the dictoya in my tank, I have red, green and brown. Wish I had a big enough tank for a Tang although my purple urchin keeps a patch in check.

colin

[BlueAbyss]

Hey, so Dichtyota comes in more than one color? Now, looking at the picture reminds me of an algae I saw at Elite when I was in Calgary... which suspiciously had lobed 'leaves' similar to the blue Dichtyota in my tank (which I'm trying to figure out how to frag ATM...) Good to know. I'm really starting to like the less invasive macros.

[Snufflupagus]

Well mine is basically all read, but has some spots of green on them at the end. it's kind of neat looking, but it's on the same rock as my green star polyp and at the moment it looks like it's taking over a bit. Should I be worried about this? Thus is why I'm wondering if there is anyway of taking off the rock without hurting my green star polyp? Are any tangs better at eating this stuff then others?

[BlueAbyss]

I should think the GSP should be tough enough to deal with a little encroachment, but your best bet would be manual removal, rather than relying on an animal to do the work. You are much more reliable than any animal I deal with a few different macros that aren't eaten by my emerald crab or Hector's goby (which both mostly feed on filamentous alga like GHA), completely by hand. As far as recommending a tang to eat the stuff you have, I have no experience with that family of fish, but (depending on the size of your tank) any of the more herbivorous tangs should do the trick (though individuals will differ in their taste).

[fishytime]

Heres a good link http://saltcorner.com/sections/guest.../algaepage.htm