I have a 30 gallon reef tank dedicated to only seahorses. There is purple coraline algae everywhere in the tank because there is live rock and corals. Ive noticed that the purple algae is starting to grow on my sea horses now. Some of their tails have little purple spots on them. Is this harmful to them?
2007-05-28 15:48:23 · 3 answers · asked by xsweetemptashnx 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
purple coraline is great for a salt water tank and that is what you try to achieve when entering into this hobby. it will go through a cycle and the final stage of it is purple coraline. I have sea horses in my store with the purple coraline on the rocks and sides of my tank. In my opinion it is not harmful to them at all, they could have had their tails wrapped around a rock with it or a coral. we keep the purple coraline on the back of the tanks. it is important for some fish and inverts because they peck at it for food. it does mean your tanks are well established....we have three sea horses and they are very social creatures. they come up for me to feed them in the morning. we also created a little hitching post where they gather in the am for greeting each other. we call it bedrock post......kat...
you may want to scrap off the coraline on the sides and the front of the tank(if any there)if you have an excess than you can remove some. or try a cleaner/blood shrimp. they love it and will not harm your sea horses....if you have aptestia than you can get a peppermint shrimp, their purpose is to eat the small polyps before they get large, they are tube like anemones that are in the live rock....
2007-05-28 16:15:33 · answer #1 · answered by kat 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
my uncle has a tank filled with live rock and corals , and the rocks are purple/ red in places and he called it coraline algae , his has been set up for a few years now and I only see it growing on the live rock not the actual coral , I think you could get growth in a few months.
2016-05-20 03:24:05 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is quite normal for seahorses. It's all part of the camouflage they use to hide themselves, since they can't swim fast enough to chase down prey.
It's mentioned in this article, in part 2: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/tube-mfi.htm
2007-05-28 16:35:40 · answer #3 · answered by copperhead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋