Caulerpa in the main tank?

Minuteman · #1 09/16/2005, 01:09 PM

Just bought a blue hippo tang, he is in a 20 gal tank. Anybody got a problem with that?

j/k

He's in QT right now, but the LFS guy recommended adding some caulerpa to my tank. I don't have a fuge, so was wondering how hard it is going to be to keep this stuff from overtaking my tank.

Any advice?

donfishy76 · #2 09/16/2005, 01:19 PM

its real easy to keep from overtaking your main tank

just prune it when you think it is getting too big

with a blue tang though, you may not have to worry about it taking over

trippyl · #3 09/16/2005, 01:36 PM

Wrong. Speaking from experience, run and hide from the caulrepa. It's toxic to all fish including tangs, hippos generally won't touch it, or if they do at first, they will quickly stop. It WILL take over your display.

A mUCH MUCH better choice is chaeto which tangs love, isnt toxic, won't yellow the water or go asexual.

reefwick · #4 09/16/2005, 01:41 PM

Somebody just had a thread on here about loosing everything because of caulerpa going sexual or something along those lines. Do a search for the thread but the overall majority was that it was a bad idea.

donfishy76 · #5 09/16/2005, 01:46 PM

There are so many myths about Caulerpa, I feel bad for it. I have never lost any corals or fish or other livestock because of Caulerpa! In all my 12 years of reefing, nothing! Only had fish that loved to eat it, and they never had any problems because of it.
Caulerpa does not go asexual, that is how it grows, asexually. It goes Sexual when something is amiss nutrient-wise.
Also, it will not go sexual if you keep it pruned, which almost any tang will! I understand individual animals will have their own preferences, but almost all tangs love algae! They need it in fact.

jenghes · #6 09/16/2005, 01:51 PM

Hmmmm, my tangs eat my caulerpa but will not touch my Chaeto.

trippyl · #7 09/16/2005, 01:54 PM

Don,

I have to respectfully disagree with you. Consider this:

- Caulrepa will go asexual after about 6-9 months of no pruning, regardless of water params

- Both my yellow and hippo tang would not ever touch it

- In order for me to rid my display of it, I had to manually extract it for months, but not before it smothered a few corals and completely infested various rocks.

- Everyone I ever came in contact with (including via posts on this and other reef sites) had the exact same experience, some just learned to live with it.

Don, I've seen it go asexual in my tank which had good params. However, I didn't lose a single fish or coral, no one seemed to mind. I think that in some cases, when it goes asexual, if there is a ton of it, it will deplete oxygen levels, which is what kills the fish.

My advice, stay away.

donfishy76 · #8 09/16/2005, 02:01 PM

<<...think that in some cases, when it goes asexual, if there is a ton of it, it will deplete oxygen levels, which is what kills the fish>>

agreed, but one thing, nothing GOES ASEXUAL my friend

algaes grow via asexual reproduction, ie spreading
SEXUAL reproduction is when they turn white and release all the gametes within the cell to spread over vast areas of the ocean

also, just because your fish would not eat it, like i said that is a generalization about all fish not liking it

some eat it like it is the best thing they have ever tried, and some try it once, and dont eat it again

trippyl · #9 09/16/2005, 02:06 PM

agreed. I wasn't being accurate with "going asexual". And if someone has a fish that likes caulrepa, then great, but it was sheer hell for me. I still have to remove sprouts here and there...

trippyl · #10 09/16/2005, 02:11 PM

FYI: http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/hcd/CAULERPA.htm

donfishy76 · #11 09/16/2005, 02:25 PM

agreed, just like in the mediterranian

but that is only one species, you cant blame them all, can you?

nano10 · #12 09/16/2005, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by trippyl
Don,

I have to respectfully disagree with you. Consider this:

- Caulrepa will go asexual after about 6-9 months of no pruning, regardless of water params

Who in the world would let that happen the stuff grows like a weed. If you didn't prun it i can see why it would suffercarte your coral.

i try to prun mine which acidently became part on my display once or twice a week.

JBarnes · #13 09/16/2005, 02:50 PM

Never had a problem with asexual but I can tell you the type of calupera I had took over my main tank and I had 6 hippos in there and they didn't touch it. Don't put it in your main tank unless you're sure the tangs will eat it. I think feather calupera they do eat.

trippyl · #14 09/16/2005, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nano10
Who in the world would let that happen the stuff grows like a weed. If you didn't prun it i can see why it would suffercarte your coral.

Consider a situation where there is very little nutrient for the algae to feed on, and very little caulrepa to start with. That was my situation, i never needed to prune it at first, because it grew so slowly at first and there was only a small amount of it. It went asexual - had no idea what was going on at the time. As the tank matured (got dirtier, more lived in), i was forced to prune. Then it took over....

donfishy76 · #15 09/16/2005, 03:47 PM

Then it took over, ...

sounds like you didnt prune enough then

and for the last time, went asexual? no such thing!

trippyl · #16 09/16/2005, 03:58 PM

Errr, sorry. It had sex... with itself.

As far as not pruning enough? The point was, at first there wasn't too much to prune. I liked it. But when i realized that it was killing some polyps with it's overgrowth, it was too late. It took a lot of effort to get it out.

Minuteman · #17 09/16/2005, 07:12 PM

Well, I put some in the QT with the new hippo and he seems to be eating it.

kass03 · #18 09/16/2005, 08:22 PM

I agree with Don.
Ive kept tangs and caulerpa in my tanks for over 20 years now and never had mine go sexual. Maybe I was lucky I dunno.
I do keep it pruned or ususally the tangs do. They usually eat it faster than I can grow it.
There are many types of caulerpa and some the tangs won't eat.
Ive never had any eat chaeto.
The kind I've found most tangs to like is the feather (mexicana) They also seem to love any of the reds.

kass

phishlet · #19 09/16/2005, 08:52 PM

Speaking from experience I would never again put one single piece of caulerpa in my main display system. I tore down a 125 gallon fully loaded reef to get rid of the stuff. People say Xenia is a weed.... hah.... caulerpa truly is a weed. Yellow tang and hippo tang wouldn't touch the stuff.

Even if it doesn't go sexual in your tank it will literally grow on the skeleton of LPS corals and right up the tissue of sps corals. It will choke out any life that it grows over. Not to mention the constant requirement of pruning the stuff. I was to the point for a while where I was pulling out half a gallon bucket full of the stuff every few days in my tank. Not fun and rather unsightly. It does look nice at first; almost seems really "natural" looking. But keep it under control seriously or you'll wish you never introduced it.

Bigchris7709 · #20 09/16/2005, 08:55 PM

Feed your hippo some nori soaked in garlic if feeding is the goal.

Frick-n-Frags · #21 09/17/2005, 01:33 PM

like donfishy was saying above, the Caulerpa goes into last-ditch reproductive mode when something is amiss nutrientwise. The best way to deplete a key nutrient is let the population get too large for its environment. So pruning to a low mass constantly never lets the algae take enough out to deplets it.

I personally would not recommend permitting it in the display tank either. It is a total PITA and once established is very tough to completely get rid of. (trust me!! and phishlet

) The crap migrates around on its vines so it is tough to prune like a shrub.

Also, if I was still going to introduce some algae, I would test my fish with maybe some strands on a clip or something, just to see what it will eat. No sense in deliberately introducing a plant that won't be touched.