Bubble/Undesirable Algae Eaters: Fish training questions

[MarsRover]

Howdy folks,

In the process of slowly stocking my tank. I have 3 baby tangs from LiveAquaria in QT on a 35 day chloroquine phosphate treatment Purple, Scopas, and 2 spot bristletooth (Zebrasoma xanthurum, Zebrasoma scopas, Ctenochaetus binotatus).

I do have some bubble algae (Valonia) and while they don't drive me as nuts as it does some reefers, I am interested in a biological solution for it and other nuisance algae control as I prefer a generally self-promoting ecosystem rather than one I need to put junk into to maintain.

Doing research, there is tons of anecdotal evidence of emerald crabs working, and not working. Tons of anecdotal evidence of Rabbitfish/foxfish working/not working. And some anecdotal evidence of tangs working/not working.

I do not do crabs.....

I have two questions:

1. I am going to first try and get my tangs to do the duty. Since they are youngsters, and in QT eating jullian sprung's green algae sheets, I was thinking of taking some bubbles out of my main tanks and plopping them into the QT tank. Maybe even dipping them in the garlic attractant to make them extra interesting to the babies. My reasoning is, like with eels and other animals in our tanks that can have questionable behaviors which to some extent can be trained out of them successfully, I'd like the babies to be exposed to the bubbles early on. The hope is that they will be young, hungry, and curious, and develop a taste for the bubbles as a supplementary food source. My suspicion is that a lot of folks who try tangs, and even rabbit fish and maybe even emeralds, and DON'T have success at getting them to munch bubbles might be because they purchased an older fish that has been fed other food items throughout its life, and not been exposed to bubbles as a possible food item; thereby not registering it as a reasonable food source as an adult. Thoughts?

2. Anyone out there know if all rabbits, or only fox faces (Siganus vulpinus), or somewhere in between are bubble grazers? LiveAquaria states very clearly on the S.Vulpinus page that they go after nuisance algae but it doesn't for any of the other rabbits/foxfaces.

Thanks folks!

 

[Maritimer]

The way I figure it, the worst that can happen is you pull some bubble algae out of your display, maybe start growing it in QT.

I'd not heard a lot about tangs eating bubble algae, but had heard it about foxfaces - and that made sense to me, them not being especially closely related to tangs. There are others here with far more experience than I, though - @eatbreakfast is one of them, and @4FordFamily is another.

~Bruce

 

[eatbreakfast]

I have always had emerald crabs eat bubble algae. I haven't had tangs eat bubble algae. Rabbits and foxfaces are hit and miss. The orange spotted rabbit has been the best algae eater out of that group.

 

[MarsRover]

I have always had emerald crabs eat bubble algae. I haven't had tangs eat bubble algae. Rabbits and foxfaces are hit and miss. The orange spotted rabbit has been the best algae eater out of that group.

Do you have issues with emeralds picking at corals, fish, or snails?

I loath my former army of hermits....the remainder of which are now sequestered to my refugium because they'd all kill each other and my snails......not a fan

 

[eatbreakfast]

Do you have issues with emeralds picking at corals, fish, or snails?

I loath my former army of hermits....the remainder of which are now sequestered to my refugium because they'd all kill each other and my snails......not a fan

Any crab can be opportunistic, but emeralds are better behaved than most.

 

[Triggreef]

At one point I had 6 tangs I my tank. Pulled them all in order to add a Cbb. Once tangs were gone bubble algae exploded. It was crazy. Emerald (mithrax) and red mithrax work vey well for bubble algae as well as bryopsis. But you need way more than you would think. It took me about 1 crab per 4g to really make a big difference quickly. If you get from the liveaquaria build your own crew they are only $5 per worth free shipping over $75.

Anyway that's where I learned quite how well tangs do with bubble algae. Problem is only large tangs will eat it. So your small tangs will probly not make a dent until they grow some.

I've had 2 foxface and neither seemed to eat any nuisance algae for me. They did knock back my zoa colonies though. Before I was able to remove them. Lesson learned.

 

[Triggreef]

I have had luck training a small yellow tang to eat bubble algae by popping some bubbles for him. The small ones I believe just have trouble popping the bubbles.

 

[HB AL]

My blonde naso chowed down on it since I added him a couple months ago, found some under( he couldn't get to these) an acro colony yesterday so I pulled them all off and popped them in the water hoping they would continue growing in the tank and hand fed him the remains.

 

[Deinonych]

My one-spot foxface (S. unimaculatus) loves bubble algae. I have spots of it deep in the rockwork that get exposed during coral pruning. Foxface cleans it right up.