what eats....[various algaes?]

[Sk8r]

Let's put our experience together in a thread and see if we can come up with eradication possibilities: I think we've hit prime algae season again.

So what, in your experience, eats: [I'll fill in mine.]

1. hair algae on rock---turbo snails, hermits, lawnmower blenny, sea hare, hairy colored [striped] pincushion urchin, kole tang, rabbitfish; lettuce sea slug.

2. hair algae on sand---fighting conch, queen conch. Hermits, rabbitfish, tang

3. red algae on rock---strombus grazer snails [conch family], hairy colored [striped] pincushion urchin.

4. green algae on glass---margarita snails, turbo snails, cerith snails.

5. red slime "algae" ---actually cyano bacteria: Mexican turbo snail? Try to avoid chemical removal.

6. grape caulerpa---hairy colored [striped] pincushion urchin, sea hare [run carbon], scribbled rabbitfish, kole tangs? Manual removal.

7. valonia: bubble algae---emerald mithrax crab [hit or miss]; I've actually had a scarlet hermit eat some, but can't keep up with it; best remover: hairy colored [striped] pincushion urchin---he rips it off and sticks it on his rump. Manual removal.

Any other ideas? Amendments? Comments?

[ACBlinky]

8. Coralline --- pincushion urchin, chitons

This may be unusual, but my dwarf angels consume caulerpa like they're at an all you can eat buffet with a time limit. They eat the roots of larger species like grape caulerpa which, IME, kills the plant. I have C. verticillata growing in the 21g and the angels get any excess growth as a treat once a week -- it lasts about thirty seconds in the water, they fight over it like dogs with a bone.

[Ciarán]

Diatoms - Turbo, Astrea and Nassarius snails.