how bad is bubble algea?

[mopar9012]

I have bubble algea and i need to get emerald crabs. I have some of the algea on 3 of my corals. The probablem is I cant find anyone that has those crabs. My LFS will get them in on thursday.
Do you think my corals are in serious risk?

 

[chilwil84]

no risk to your coral just risk to the appearence of your tank if you pop them and they spread everywhere

 

[ruaround]

you can take them out by hand... just dont pop them it will release spores and spread big time... or wait til you get your emerald crab and watch him feast!!!

 

[hatessushi]

After about 4 months I removed my bubble algea by hand. I also had 4 emerald crabs. I posted on this board about my emeralds not eating the bubble algea. It turned out that although the emerald crabs will eat bubble algea it's not big on their menu. They will eat it if there is very little or nothing else.

 

[mopar9012]

is there anything else I can get that wil eat it? I mean i just can see myself taking out the rock to take the bubbles off either. Thats a lot of work.

 

[travis89]

Nothing really eats them if there is other stuff around, I also tried the emerald crab to get rid of them and it wouldn't touch them.

 

[hatessushi]

Originally Posted by mopar9012
is there anything else I can get that wil eat it? I mean i just can see myself taking out the rock to take the bubbles off either. Thats a lot of work.
Yes, it is a lot of work

 

[mopar9012]

Originally Posted by HatesSushi
Yes, it is a lot of work
haha...i see where u are getting at. Im not liking it.

 

[hatessushi]

Originally Posted by mopar9012
haha...i see where u are getting at. Im not liking it.
Sorry to be so blunt but sometimes we get stuff on our live rock that is not wanted. We have no control over it but maybe someday there will be LR you can buy without anything bad (like maybe aquacultured live rock). In the mean time we have to do what we can. If you don't have a lot of bubble algea now then it is now a good time to remove it. Take each piece one at a time out of the tank and into a bucket of salt water close to the parameters of your tank. Remove all the bubble algea you can find (hopefully all of it). when thats done then put it back in the tank. don't let the LR get exposed to the air for to long to minimize die off.
That's about all I know to do to remove it. Others may have another idea. I removed mine before the algea had spread.

 

[dragonzim]

I had some recently and got a few emerald crabs and they took care of it in about a week. I guess everyone has different experiences with them, but they are cheap enough that it is worth a shot to not have to remove your rock from the tank.

 

[crazyaqua]

Yeah my emeralds didn't have time to clean because they became a snack for my somewhat peaceful hawk fish. So i just pulled them out by hand that was about 6 months ago no regrowth that i can see.

 

[mopar9012]

ill give the crabs a chance. How many should i get for a 29 gallon?

 

[earlybird]

How do the crabs eat the algae w/o causing them to pop?

 

[f14peter]

How easy would it be to pry the bubble off a rock without it bursting? It looks like I have one bubble, but it's in a fairly accessable location and I'd really rather not have to take the piece of rock out.
Could I slip something semi-sharp under it and get it loose, then net it?