Bigfish of La.
Active Member
As the title states. Is it also reef safe?
Will tuxedo urchin eat green hair algae?
- Thread starter Bigfish of La.
- Start date
- Tagged users None
NS Mike D
In the arena.
Supposedly. My experience is that nothing is as effective as brushing the stuff off the rocks with a toothbrush while running all my pumps to keep it suspended until it gets caught in the filter socks.
To complicate matters, I'm fairly sure that my GHA included dinos, which would explain why the urchin wasn't like a lawn mower on the rocks. I don't have a microscope so I'm not 100% certain. H2O2 dosing for a week really knocked the stuff back but that is very risky and it could have well been the dinos dying
Aside from all that, once the areas of rock have been eradicated, IMO, the urchin is doing a good job of keeping it that way. Like many things in this hobby, there is no silver bullet but I do consider my urchin a major ally in the GHA war.
Here you can see him/her in a patch of GHA, (or is that dinos? ) pretending to be a snail.
To complicate matters, I'm fairly sure that my GHA included dinos, which would explain why the urchin wasn't like a lawn mower on the rocks. I don't have a microscope so I'm not 100% certain. H2O2 dosing for a week really knocked the stuff back but that is very risky and it could have well been the dinos dying
Aside from all that, once the areas of rock have been eradicated, IMO, the urchin is doing a good job of keeping it that way. Like many things in this hobby, there is no silver bullet but I do consider my urchin a major ally in the GHA war.
Here you can see him/her in a patch of GHA, (or is that dinos? ) pretending to be a snail.
TexasReefer82
Active Member
Yes. Tuxedo Urchins (as well as Halloween urchins) are phenomenal eaters of green hair algae. They're better than anything else, IMO, because they use their 5-toothed mouthparts to scrape the rock clean and will actually scrape off and eat the top layer of rock itself - to be excreted later as fine sand.
However, if what you have is not actually green hair algae they may not eat it. They will not touch even one thread of bryopsis.
They will readily consume hair algae, coralline algae, and even small amount of cyano (if it's en route to coralline), and a variety of other unidentified turf macroalgae. They seem to really like various red macro/turf algaes. But NOT Bryopsis, not whatsoever.
However, if what you have is not actually green hair algae they may not eat it. They will not touch even one thread of bryopsis.
They will readily consume hair algae, coralline algae, and even small amount of cyano (if it's en route to coralline), and a variety of other unidentified turf macroalgae. They seem to really like various red macro/turf algaes. But NOT Bryopsis, not whatsoever.
saintsreturn
Well-Known Member
Yes they do, but mine keeps everything clean, he does not eat long haired stuff. He never has. That said, manual removal with his support paid off big time.
Lloyd Williams
Active Member
Will he?! Man that thing is a beast!
Clownfish2
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2017
- Messages
- 324
- Reaction score
- 369
My tuxedo urchin would make little algae-eating tracks on the back glass of the aquarium, but that’s about it. The green hair algae grew faster than he ate.
Most effective is pulling the rocks out and scrubbing them with a brush or a toothbrush in the crevices.
Most effective is pulling the rocks out and scrubbing them with a brush or a toothbrush in the crevices.
Similar threads
