Evil Calupra nummularia, any suggestions?

[JohnK]

This stuff stinks!

I have had a tiny tiny bit of it for yrs, about a month ago it started absolutely growing like mad. About the same time I dosed iodine which I hadn't done in a long time (about 1.5 weekly dose reccomended on lugols bottle).

no other notable changes in husbandry that I'm aware of. Also my RBTA's have been bubbling way up in the last week or so and I added "trace elements" just before that. The algea was going jurassic well before the trace elements addition or the bubble tip bubbling.

Any control ideas, who will eat it?

I have a chevron tang and long spined urchin, neither are bothering with it at all.

 

[~Flighty~]

It looks a lot like the calupera peletada that every rabbitfish I've ever had likes. you are welcome to bring some and see if my fish eats it if you come to the cookout.

 

[JohnK]

Thanks Cindy, I'll try to do that.

Edit; I'm not sure at all on the ID, it's similar to the pic in Sprung's algea problem solver book.

The funny thing is that I put the long spined urchin, actually a 3 of them, in to eat the stuff but no dice. The first one I got I put in my frag tank which has little to eat, and then put a rock with some of the evil stuff in there. In about 2 days the urchin found the rock and cleaned it off wonderfully.

A few wks later, after a quick QT time they went into the display where I'm having the problem. They clean the rocks fantastically! ,,,,,, everywhere but where this stuff is growing.

Ughhhh

 

[jcbcole]

You can bring a piece over to my place to see if the foxface eats it. He seems to eat everything green. If so, you're welcome to borrow him

 

[JohnK]

Jonathon, good to hear from you. Where you been?

Is he still nipping corals? I've got the big trap available if you still want to catch him/it?

That would be great if i could bring a bit of that algae over to see if it eates it.

Cindy rocks, but your a lot closer

I forget, is your tank right around the corner, or somewhere else, was it waltham???

jk

 

[jcbcole]

He only nips if he doesn't get enough algae. I'm right around the corner.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Caulerpa can be a real problem if it gets a good foothold. Even tangs can tire of it. You may need to crop it manually back to a really low level before a tang can keep up with it. Some forms are toxic and some fish can only eat a little bit before not feeling so well. An old BRS member tore down his very successful 90 gallon system once because of a form of Caulerpa.

 

[marco67]

Years ago I ordered some of the "sea Bunnies" from IPSF
They cleared a whole 55gallon Refugium of that in about a week. At the time I was bummed but in retrospect it was for the best.

Might be an option for you if you don’t want to add fish.

 

[JohnK]

Greg, your making me want to go run and hide. This stuff does have a solid foot hold.

Marc, I forget what is a "sea bunny"?

 

[xp964]

Sea Hare

 

[~Flighty~]

Too early to get scared
here is a pic of mine, the rabbit fish ate every ounce of it.

 

[marco67]

Greg, your making me want to go run and hide. This stuff does have a solid foot hold.

Marc, I forget what is a "sea bunny"?

I forget their name also and I don't see them on their site now.
They were those snails with a very small shell on their back

 

[susyq458]

At first I thought you guys were making a joke. These things are for real.
http://www.janetsreef.com/sea_hare.htm

 

[JohnK]

Cindy that's the nicest thing anyone's said to me all day

I think I'll be visiting Jonathon's rabbit soon.

 

[meemoo]

I'm glad I came across this post because lately along with my cyano I have been getting alot more macro algae, mostly caulerpa (razor and now seeing cindy's pic peletada too. I'm not sure why after 2 years all of a sudden I am seeing these pop up. Only macro algae I introduced in the tank was chaeto. I have been pulling the stuff out best I could but it's got a nice foothold in some crevices I can't get to.

 

[Alex]

I have a rabbit that cleared out my calerpa infestation. He did his job but now he's looking for a new home as he decided he like my open brains as much as he likes the calerpa.

 

[JohnK]

Thanks for all the input. I picked up a "brown spotted rabbitfish" from AA yesterday. I have it in QT now (as I do with any fish that comes within 50 feet of my tanks). I have given it a couple of chunks of rock with lots of my evil algae attached. The rabbit has cleaned them off quite aggresively.

(Fingers crossed) Hopefully I've got a fix for this very annoying problem.

 

[JohnK]

Update;

I have no idea why, but it's started to decline? About a month ago I noticed the growth slowing, now it's clearly declining (dying back and receding where it was starting to overgrow corals)? I really haven't changed anything in all that time, kind of ignoring the tank..