Any that eats grape caulerpa?

psychedelic · #1 12-10-2005, 09:03 PM

The caulerpa in my tank is great. I had some hair algae growing... and introduced some grape caulerpa to suck up all the nitrates... it cleared it up super quickly.

But now the opposite has happened... pieces of it broke off when i was pruning it...and now i have quite a few spots in my aquarium that is thriving with caulerpa. It's not taking over quite yet, but I want to nip the problem while it's still small.

The caulerpa has now been banished to a HOB refugium with a grating preventing it from spreading back into the main tank.

Any ideas what's good for eating grape caulerpa in a nano reef... mebbe even keeping a baby tang for a few months?

Here's my spec:
29 gallon
1 yellow assesor
1 mandarin dragonet
1 firefish

green star polyps
yellow polyps
coco worm
various sp. zooanthids
finger leather
galaxia
finger leather
blue mushrooms
neon green clauvaria

Any help appreciated....

fatpuffer · #2 12-10-2005, 09:16 PM

I heard yellow tangs or foxface might eat them.

Js

Marty · #3 12-11-2005, 03:34 AM

foxface worked for me

Ruth · #4 12-11-2005, 03:40 AM

Those are pretty big fish for a 29g tank. I would see if you can find anyone with a tang that you can maybe trade live rock with (as long as their tang or foxface eats it). If you were closer I would as I have a Naso tang that so far that is all it will eat. I have some that is trying to take over my 12g Nano so have been switching rocks with that tank but I will soon run out of grapes for him. I think your only other option is to take all of the rocks that have the calurpa on it out and really scrub them good. This stuff is very hard to get rid of as the roots seem to be able to go deep inside the rock - at least that's my experience.

psychedelic · #5 12-11-2005, 04:42 PM

Yeah Ruth...unfortunately all the species that eat caulerpa seem a little larger. After your naso picks over the rock, do they eliminate the roots too? Or will the evil weed grow back after a while?

What abt nudi's? Do the lettuce ones only eat hair algae?

Ruth · #6 12-11-2005, 05:09 PM

I'm not sure yet as I just started doing it more out of deperation because the tang wasn't eating. He sure picks it clean but I am going to cycle them back into my nano and see what grows - or maybe just my sump and let it grow to keep feeding. It is horrible stuff for taking over though if you don't have anything that eats it. I'm not sure about the nudi's cause I've never had them.