Emerald crabs (Mithraculus sculptus) and bubble algae

[ThaBeast]

I've been fighting bubble algae for awhile now. I recently added some emerald crabs to help, but it seems that the bubble algae is becoming prolific. In your experience, do the emeralds help in the bubble algae war or make it worse by popping the algae bubbles?

 

[jestersix]

It depends on the crabs. I have a few in my 150 and they help keep it down. I had a bad case in my 50 and tried several with no luck. Finally put one in that went to town and it has cleaned it all out! If I could clone that crab I'd get rich - it is a hit or miss proposition of how much, but they certainly help.

 

[_Alex_]

just like evrything from fish to shrimp on eating those one certain things its 50/50 some will some wont.

 

[skinz78]

I've never had any luck, at one point it was hard to find coraline in spots in my tank the bubbles were so bad. I purchased a Foxface Rabbitfish and the bubbles are gone now!

 

[PR_Reefers]

I've had success with them but for minor breakouts.... however it depends also how bad a breakout of bble algae you have and what other more appetizing algae there is for the crabs to munch on

 

[blkhawk10]

The three times I had bubble algae in my tank I put in some emeralds in and it was gone in a couple days.

 

[ThaBeast]

I've never had any luck, at one point it was hard to find coraline in spots in my tank the bubbles were so bad. I purchased a Foxface Rabbitfish and the bubbles are gone now!

Do you have a Foxface Lo or a One Spot Foxface? Is there a difference between the two as far as bubble algae consumption?

 

[skinz78]

I had a Foxface Lo and he fell prey to the almighty undertow of the MP40... I now have a Two Barred Rabbitfish and I've found that they both eat bubble algae.

 

[ThaBeast]

Hmmm...my daughter really wants a foxface in the tank....so does my girlfriend...so I am carefully considering this addition. You raised a concern for me with the mp40 incident though, I run two 6305's plus a couple of smaller tunzes and ~2000gph from the return (this is a 6ft 210g tank). My wrasses love the flow and doesn't bother my swissguard or my c. argi, but is flow an issue with a foxface?

 

[Johnthebaptist]

I have had a good experience with emeralds with tiny bubble algae but not the bigger stuff. I manually removed all the big ones and then my crab was able to keep it in check.

 

[skinz78]

I have a MP40 and a MP20 on my 4' 120g, they are on full blast and I haven't had any issues since the last Foxface Lo, I think it was a pretty old fish, I got it as a hand me down from someone else who had a bubble algae problem. I noticed it was hanging out during lights out right next to the pump, the next morning it was a goner.

 

[lps1212]

I recently added 3 emrald crabs to my nano and I don't see any improvement. :sad: what a waist of money imo I bought them for bubble algae and it seems like they munch on everything but that darn lil suckers