Bubble algae should I buy and emerald crab?

MikeP · #1 10-13-2006, 09:33 PM

I've noticed a very small amount of bubble algae in my tank. Like 4 or 5 bubbles. Should I run out and buy an emerald crab? Or is that jumping the gun a bit. What else eats bubble algae? If the only thing I can do is buy and emerald crab what tank mates can it have? I would be worried that it will fight with my CBS and my hermit, or even eat my very small zebra hermits.

Thanks for any info

Chad · #2 10-13-2006, 09:37 PM

If its just a few bubbles I would manualy remove them. Get something good and sharp and dig under the bubbles.. and suck em out .. or take the whole rock out and do it that way.

hawk · #3 10-13-2006, 09:42 PM

I never had much luck with emerald crabs eating bubble algae. All I do now is pop them and pull out the casing, usually with tweezers. I think it is a myth about this making them grow faster by releasing spores. I rarely see them now.

untamed · #4 10-13-2006, 10:15 PM

I've always had bubble algae in my tank...never found any critter that eats it...but also I've never found them to become a problem. My guess is that they never multiply out of control because I grow so many types of macroalgae that they likely compete for nutrients. If the bubble is the ONLY algae you have, you might find it to be a problem.

Flusher · #5 10-13-2006, 10:49 PM

I've had a few emerald crabs, and I've had good experiences with them cleaning out the bubble algae. My current crab cleaned out the algae when it was in my 13 gallon nano. I upgraded tanks, but now the stupid crab hangs out near the same rock all the time and bubble algae is getting out of control in other parts of the tank.

I'm definitely going to get a couple more crabs as soon as possible.
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kwirky · #6 10-13-2006, 11:49 PM

I've found my emerald crabs quite beneficial to my tank. I have 3 in a 120 gallon aquarium. (along with a black "emerald" crab hitchiker which is more shy, but behaves the exact same as the others). they keep to themselves, and I find them a great invertibrate to have in a tank. I have two left handed hermits that seem to be fine. I'm more nervous about the 1/2" sized hermits misbehaving than the 2" emerald crabs, really. If the hermits perish for any reason, I'm not getting more.

I noticed bubble algae about 3 weeks before I bought the crabs, but now I can't find any at all. But then, my nitrates are < 0.2ppm, and I run rowaphos. I only have one fish in the entire aquarium ATM

hummer · #7 10-14-2006, 07:56 PM

I had bubble algae grow on this one rock. It got pretty big. A few weeks later I noticed more growing on other rocks. I bought 2 Emerald Crabs and they seemed to have cleaned it all up. The big bubbles I removed by hand. I wasn't sure if it would spread if I popped it inside the tank so i took the rock out before removing the bubble.