The right plant eating fish for my Nano?

[Harpo]

Just looking for the right fish for my tank. Doing the research but everything is coming up yellow tang... I feel this is wrong being I have a 28 gal nano HQI.

I Have Too much colpura growing in the the tank and am tired of pruning it. My tank is only 5mths old.

Any suggestions on a hardy and size acceptable fish or invertebrates?

Thanks for any help!!!

[Nano]

not a tang maybe a lawnmower blenny they are algae grazers

[MaxwellSilver]

emerald crab for caulerpa

[Proteus]

Turbo or strawberry snail

[Myka]

Some tangs will eat Caulerpa and most Foxface Rabbitfish will, but obviously your tank is way too small for a tang or Foxface. Some seahares will eat Caulerpa. Blennies won't usually touch Caulerpa, and I've never come across any snails, shrimp, or crabs that will eat it.

You're better off picking it out as best you can once a week and work on lowering nutrients. You should be able to eradicate it in a couple months.

[Harpo]

So Caulerpa is bad for the tank? Also, how do I lower my nutrients w/o killing ,my snails and shrimp. In above comment turbo snail was mentioned but I have 4 and if they do eat it, it's minimal.

Originally Posted by Myka

Some tangs will eat Caulerpa and most Foxface Rabbitfish will, but obviously your tank is way too small for a tang or Foxface. Some seahares will eat Caulerpa. Blennies won't usually touch Caulerpa, and I've never come across any snails, shrimp, or crabs that will eat it.

You're better off picking it out as best you can once a week and work on lowering nutrients. You should be able to eradicate it in a couple months.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Harpo

So Caulerpa is bad for the tank? Also, how do I lower my nutrients w/o killing ,my snails and shrimp. In above comment turbo snail was mentioned but I have 4 and if they do eat it, it's minimal.

No, Caulerpa itself isn't bad for the tank although if it gets too rampant it will go sexual which makes the water go cloudy, spikes ammonia, and drops dissolved oxygen. Critters don't like that.

Check out the link in my signature about nuisance algae for help lowering dissolved nutrients. Shrimp live off of uneaten fish food more than anything, so they will be fine. You can always target feed them. Most snails live off microalgae mainly which needs very little nutrients to grow where macroalgae (like Caulerpa, hair algae, etc) need much more nutrients to thrive. It is unlikely that you would be able to lower nutrients so far as to kill off snails unless you are carbon dosing (not the same type of carbon as what you use in a filter).

[Harpo]

Sweet thank you! I will have to take a look! I love how helpful the people on this site are! AWESOME!

Originally Posted by Myka

No, Caulerpa itself isn't bad for the tank although if it gets too rampant it will go sexual which makes the water go cloudy, spikes ammonia, and drops dissolved oxygen. Critters don't like that.

Check out the link in my signature about nuisance algae for help lowering dissolved nutrients. Shrimp live off of uneaten fish food more than anything, so they will be fine. You can always target feed them. Most snails live off microalgae mainly which needs very little nutrients to grow where macroalgae (like Caulerpa, hair algae, etc) need much more nutrients to thrive. It is unlikely that you would be able to lower nutrients so far as to kill off snails unless you are carbon dosing (not the same type of carbon as what you use in a filter).