****fish that eats valonia bubble algae - move to discussion forum?

[Chin_Lee]

If you have a fish that likes to and willingly eat bubble algae, i'm putting in an offer to buy it for $150. I've heard some rabbit fishes will eat them. So PM me if you have one.

[shotzee]

Have you tried getting an emerald crab. I had a problem with bubble algae a while back. I picked up one of these guys and a few days later it was taken care of, plus they are pretty cool crabs.

[SuperFudge]

For 150 ill eat your bubble algea.

I think its hit and miss with most fish, but i think Naso`s gonna be your best chance.

Marc.

[Delphinus]

Ha! For $150 I'll eat valonia too. Well, Ok maybe not.

FWIW, I have two fish who seem to do a bang-up job at it, Siganus virgatus rabbitfish in one tank, and Zebrasoma desjardini Red Sea Sailfin tang in another and they go to town on the stuff.

I never had any luck with emerald crabs, I went through a dozen of them and they never did a thing to valonia. Apparently you have to keep getting more of them until you find one that will and then you're set, but finding the few that will help is a bit annoying. I actually took a tank down because the valonia was so bad, this was before I discovered my sailfin devoured the stuff. When I took that tank down, I moved all my snails (which had become 2" roving colonies of valonia) into the tank with the tang, and within hours they were clean snails once more.

Good luck with the search! Having a bad case of valonia can get to you (heck like I said I gave up on a tank because of it .. this was before I had the rabbit).

[Nate]

Make sure to get the biggest red sea sailfin you can, as in my experiences with alonia it makes the real difference.

Nate

[Chin_Lee]

thanks guys for your advice.
When I switched tanks, I didn't use any of my old rocks and the coral pieces i scrubbed and scrubbed for days.... i have bubble algae again.
I've bought 10 emeralds put three in my 165 and 7 in the 300 still got the bubble aglae problem.
I got phosban running 24/7 changed every 3 months, still got the problem.

So Marc, I'll take you up on the offer to eat the bubble algae from my tanks..... i might even throw in a $20 tip if you don't use your hands

So there are recommendations for Naso, rabbit fish, and red sea sailfin which I will look into if nobody takes my offer which still stands for anybody with one of these fish i'll buy it for $150. Tony i'll even pay for shipping if you are willing to part with your bubble algae eating fishes.

[findingnemo1]

My naso eats it but that is a long way to ship him

[tang daddy]

Chin, I had all type of algae growing on my rock not too sure what the names ar but one was red bubble type that anchored itself to lr good you couldn't get it off with a knife even so I took my sea urchin out of the reef and put it in within a week all the algae was gone so save your 150 spend 14 on an urchin and when you're done sell it. they're awesome at keeping the tank clean eat every agae I had only problem is when they get big it's a pain after I got pricked I sold it but am planning on getting a small one in a month or so cause the algae is slowly growing back!

[Chin_Lee]

MODERATOR - please move to Reef Discussion if its more appropriate now

In my quest to rid my tank of bubble algae, I've come across two fish that i have success in eating valonia. One of them is a large sailfin tang. I acquired a large one locally and it eats valonia quite readily. However this fish grows rapidly and get very large. The one I acquired is about 6-7" and when its "sail" fins are expanded, its easily 8-9" high. I placed this species into my 300g tank which I feel is living well in the extra space available. Putting one of these into a small tanks may not be an option for many.

The second species have been the rabbit fish but caution must be used with them because they are not all created "equally". I have had good success so far with the 2 out of 2 Golden Rabbitfish (Siganus corallinus). I bought one that was 2.5" and a larger one that was 4" and they both eat bubble algae AND hair algae.

Caution: I had bought another rabbitfish Bluelined Rabbitfish (Siganus puellus) that was odd in that it would hide all day and nip at my Lobophyllia corals. The person I bought it from had also cautioned me about this fish in that it would also nip at his ricordias and mushrooms. I had to recatch this fish and donate it to a LPS. On the other hand, while at this LPS, it had an identical Signaus puellus in the display thank that was full of LPS including lobo and rics.

My recommendation for any aquarist having issues with bubble algae and hair algae is the rabbitfishes. When buying one, make sure its out and about swimiing in the open. Avoid the ones that cower in the corners or in the rocks. Before introducing it into your diplay tank, (and if possible), put your newly acquired rabbitfish in the sump at first and place some frags of frogspawn, lobo, mushrooms into the sump as well. Also put a rock with some nuisance algae to see if it will eat it. You should know within a few days if its a keeper.

PROS:
- will likely eat bubble and hair algae
- most are quite colorful
- although some will grow quite large (do your homework before buying), most will stay around the 5-7" range in captivity
- relatively inexpensive and commonly available

CONS:
- some may nip at corals softies and LPS (many reports the disappearance of xenia, anthelia, hair algae, bubble algae with the introduction of rabbitfish into their tanks)
- some may be shy and hide (you can tell from the store depending how long they have been in the LPS)
- some can grow very large (ie orange spotted beautiful but can grow up to 16")

As far as the emerald crabs are concerned, even if they are effective, due to their sizes, I believe they can only eat one, two and possibly three valonia in a day. A good sized Rabbitfish shoud be able to devour at least 10-30 bubbles while grazing.

Hope that helps.

[Zoaelite]

I have a Snow-Moray That im sure would eat it :\ Il only charge you 140 too