Adding these fish?

[enricocoron]

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pay through the nose for a biota YT and take care of my very persistent hair algae issue, I keep picking it, keep running rowaphos, keep changing water 25% every week and it keeps appearing on my corals, and some places on rocks. I have no other pests and coralline is growing fast, corals are happy that don't have hair algae on them, even a couple acros seem happy/colorful. they are only 1.25 inches and it would be going into a 60 cube with a pair of Oc. Clowns, an ORA orchid dottyback, and a male McClosker flasher wrasse (and a tail spot blenny and yellow watchman goby but I'm not worried about them). Will it be able to handle itself at that small size? I thought because its a tang, yes, that nothing will really pick on it (well pick on it and win), is this right? As for it outgrowing the tank, yes that will happen but I plan to upgrade to a 5-6 foot long custom by then after my home remodel (already starting snagging some gear on sale) or if for some reason it outgrows it first I doubt I will have any issue re homing a YT in this market.

One more question, if I also ordered a blue mandarin I would get free shipping, will he be tolerated? I thought he could just go into the caves and eat pods even though Biota says they only feed their mandarins baby frozen brine and tiny pellets which they readily accept, which is one of the only reasons I would buy one. Getting one from the ocean only eating pods without a larger tank or a pod farm doesn't seem right. Currently I don't really see any of the fish actively feeding on pods, except maybe the blenny once in a while but he's lazy)

 

[vetteguy53081]

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pay through the nose for a biota YT and take care of my very persistent hair algae issue, I keep picking it, keep running rowaphos, keep changing water 25% every week and it keeps appearing on my corals, and some places on rocks. I have no other pests and coralline is growing fast, corals are happy that don't have hair algae on them, even a couple acros seem happy/colorful. they are only 1.25 inches and it would be going into a 60 cube with a pair of Oc. Clowns, an ORA orchid dottyback, and a male McClosker flasher wrasse (and a tail spot blenny and yellow watchman goby but I'm not worried about them). Will it be able to handle itself at that small size? I thought because its a tang, yes, that nothing will really pick on it (well pick on it and win), is this right? As for it outgrowing the tank, yes that will happen but I plan to upgrade to a 5-6 foot long custom by then after my home remodel (already starting snagging some gear on sale) or if for some reason it outgrows it first I doubt I will have any issue re homing a YT in this market.

One more question, if I also ordered a blue mandarin I would get free shipping, will he be tolerated? I thought he could just go into the caves and eat pods even though Biota says they only feed their mandarins baby frozen brine and tiny pellets which they readily accept, which is one of the only reasons I would buy one. Getting one from the ocean only eating pods without a larger tank or a pod farm doesn't seem right. Currently I don't really see any of the fish actively feeding on pods, except maybe the blenny once in a while but he's lazy)

I would not expect a yellow tank to take down algae especially if a juvenile size
Rabbit fish, kole tang, tail spot blenny would be better bet
Snails such as Astrea, trochus, nerite, cerith and turbo grazer will help and not to mention female emerald crabs, and Caribbean blue leg hermits

 

[lulubap]

By YT I assume you mean yellow tang? Never heard of them taking down hair algae. If you're looking for a clean up tang I would recommend the bristletooth genus and (not a tang) foxfaces.

It's best if you feed the mandarin whatever it was eating prior to being placed in your tank. They could eat pods, but would probably be more comfortable eating the brine shrimp and pellets first. With a pod culture readily available, it may however transition to eating pods at least partially.

As for algae inverts, turbos, trochus, etc, vetteguy has a good list up there...

 

[bnord]

The above is spot on, and if too entrenched it may take a hairy chiton or urchin or something else like that
as to the Mandarin, have talked to folks that say these CB mandarins are TINY and better be prepared to make sure they are fed directly

But good luck with YT, i have a 3 year old from them

 

[enricocoron]

Okay, I was only thinking yellow tang because I dug up a poll on here some years ago where bristletooths were considered better at slime algae, and yellow/lavendar tangs were better at hair algae but that does not seem to be the consensus here. I see Blue Zoo has 'blue eyed tang' but also known as two spot bristletooth, would that be a good hair algae candidate? I used to have an emerald crab but I caught him eating coral. I have all those snails listed but no blue leg hermits so I will look for them as well. I may pass on the mandarin for now then if I'm not shipping the yellow tang from Biota. Can a blue dragonet be weened from pods onto frozen or I'm guessing that's just hit or miss based on individual fish.

 

[Rickybobby]

my tang doesnt care for algae, i bought a sea hare and voila 3 weeks later the tank is spotless, hes now on vacation at a friends house

 

[enricocoron]

The problem with the Sea Hare is if it runs out of algae while you are on vacation it dies its a giant rotting hunk of meat. I just got off the phone with an LFS and they just put 60 small tominis into Quarantine today. So I think the Tominis are known to be good algae eaters. They also got some Koles in as well so it sounds like there will be options if I drop in there. Also, don't know if this is news to the forum but the manager said Hawaii just cleared 250k Yellow tangs per year to be harvested again for export.

 

[bnord]

Honestly, tangs are a lot better at getting algae before it gets hairy, i have a flame finned and a blue eyed, and they graze all day long, but rarely hit the filamentous stuff.
Had à beladona (man, spell check wont let me get close to that) sea slug who took the hair algae down to the bone. Just don’t get a big one, then loan it out when the tank is clean
And an LFS that QT’s 60 tominis? Wow, that’s not like where i live….

 

[enricocoron]

He said he bought so many because they are tiny, and nobody else has them in stock so he jumped at it. I think some companies that stock/take care of big show tanks go there so he'll probably sell some to them. With the Qurantine i should say that they are in the main tanks, but they are treated upon arrival, and you are welcome to buy and take home but you can also buy and leave them for 2 weeks until treatment is done. You can pay a fee for additional 2 more weeks housing as well. They only starting doing saltwater fish recently and they seem to just want to do it right and be the premier store in the region and probably will have on online/shipping option as well. They don't do coral or inverts, only focus is fish and I have to say everything looked extremely well cared for and tanks were spotless no dead fish anywhere like I usually see in stores. I have to say when I upgrade as to a 150 ish in a year or two I will probably only go through them to stock it after speaking with them.

 

[enricocoron]

Also my wife got in there last night with tweezers and using her smaller/more nimble hands was able to get 90% of it so no real filaments left, she said she'll do it again right before I drop the Tomnini in there so it has a fighters chance.