Pitho crabs vs bubble algae

[heyhans1]

I just wanted to share my experience using pitho crabs to fight bubble algae. I recently had a bubble algae outbreak after I overdosed trying to bring up both of my nutrients that had bottomed out. My tank tank is a 40 gallon cube with 3 fish and about 10 pieces of soft and lps coral. I bought 3 pitho crabs and put them in my tank last Wednesday. A week later 95 percent of the bubble algae is gone. I plan on keeping 2 of them for future outbreaks and donating 1 to a good home.

 

[JoJosReef]

Nice! Head on over to the CUC Lovers thread and show off your pithos in action!

The CUC lovers thread!

There's a wrasse lovers thread, an angel lovers thread, even a tang lovers thread "show off your tangs" for some reason. But no one's sharing the love for our dear CUC. Lets get that started, shall we? Here you can: 1. Share pictures of your CUC doing CUC things, or perhaps doing things CUC...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[TX_REEF]

nice!

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Good to hear. Always love when a CUC works as intended.

 

[kevgib67]

I’ve always used emerald crabs for bubble algae but I keep reading pithos are better and quicker at getting the job done.

 

[JoJosReef]

I’ve always used emerald crabs for bubble algae but I keep reading pithos are better and quicker at getting the job done.

And infinitely more entertaining. They have these tiny claws that they wave around when they see you--mine associate me with food, so sometimes when I turn off the pumps, they know I'm going to scrape off some bubble algae and put it in front of them (my older ones got addicted to TDO pellets and decided those were better... so I gave them TDO pellets).

 

[kevgib67]

And infinitely more entertaining. They have these tiny claws that they wave around when they see you--mine associate me with food, so sometimes when I turn off the pumps, they know I'm going to scrape off some bubble algae and put it in front of them (my older ones got addicted to TDO pellets and decided those were better... so I gave them TDO pellets).

Back in the mid to late nineties I got bubble algae and got emeralds which took care of it but I enjoyed them so much I always had them for the 16 years it was up. I’ve had them in my current system coming up on 3 years. They tend to last about 1 1/2 years. Maybe I’ll make the switch, I’ve never had bubble algae in this system but like you I find crabs entertaining. How many for a 32 gallon?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Glad to hear. I just added 3 to my 40 yesterday, hoping for good results. I also added one to my 15 gallon, hopefully it eats bryopsis (sigh)

 

[JoJosReef]

Back in the mid to late nineties I got bubble algae and got emeralds which took care of it but I enjoyed them so much I always had them for the 16 years it was up. I’ve had them in my current system coming up on 3 years. They tend to last about 1 1/2 years. Maybe I’ll make the switch, I’ve never had bubble algae in this system but like you I find crabs entertaining. How many for a 32 gallon?

If the bubble algae is out of control, I'd want 2 good workers, which means get 3 pithos and hope 2 are good workers. I'd only do that if I have locals that I can rehome them to. Not necessarily because I want to get rid of them, but because once the bubble algae is largely gone, they will start to switch to other types of food and I'll end up target feeding 3 of them instead of one of them--better to pass one one or two to locals to help with their bubble algae.

 

[VintageReefer]

I put 2 pithos in my 75g tank and once they ate 90% of the bubble algae I caught them eating coral. Pulling acans apart, picking at torch…be careful and observant if you notice coral suddenly not looking healthy or opening normal

 

[kevgib67]

If the bubble algae is out of control, I'd want 2 good workers, which means get 3 pithos and hope 2 are good workers. I'd only do that if I have locals that I can rehome them to. Not necessarily because I want to get rid of them, but because once the bubble algae is largely gone, they will start to switch to other types of food and I'll end up target feeding 3 of them instead of one of them--better to pass one one or two to locals to help with their bubble algae.

So since I don’t have bubble algae just one?

 

[heyhans1]

I think any crab can go rogue once its food source is depleted. I started feeding them some algae wafers hopefully they don’t acquire a taste for my coral.

 

[JoJosReef]

So since I don’t have bubble algae just one?

You can have more. I just find that a well fed crab is a happy crab that ignores coral (sometimes not), so I target feed mine when they have no more bubble algae. Target feeding one is easier then 3. I'm Italian blood so I can't watch anything in my tank being under-overfed.

 

[VintageReefer]

I think any crab can go rogue once its food source is depleted. I started feeding them some algae wafers hopefully they don’t acquire a taste for my coral.

I had other algae in the tank and I target feed corals and plenty lands on the ground. Just be careful I’m not the only one to report this. And I have plenty of scarlet hermits that show no interest in coral. The pithos are the only ones

 

[kevgib67]

You can have more. I just find that a well fed crab is a happy crab that ignores coral (sometimes not), so I target feed mine when they have no more bubble algae. Target feeding one is easier then 3. I'm Italian blood so I can't watch anything in my tank being under-overfed.

Thanks Jojo, my wife is Italian, family of five here and every meal is made for twelve people.

 

[Doctorgori]

I had both bubble algae in my sump with some macro algae.
Be advised my pitho went directly for all of the caulerpa and red ogo first,
…..never touched the big bubble tear dropped pea sized stuff and only sort of touched that densely packed mini bubble algae… Weird as I always thought it was the same stuff…

 

[JoJosReef]

I had both bubble algae in my sump with some macro algae.
Be advised my pitho went directly for all of the caulerpa and red ogo first,
…..never touched the big bubble tear dropped pea sized stuff and only sort of touched that densely packed mini bubble algae… Weird as I always thought it was the same stuff…

crabs are weird

 

[heyhans1]

I had both bubble algae in my sump with some macro algae.
Be advised my pitho went directly for all of the caulerpa and red ogo first,
…..never touched the big bubble tear dropped pea sized stuff and only sort of touched that densely packed mini bubble algae… Weird as I always thought it was the same stuff…

Nature is unpredictable

 

[Makara23]

I had 2 pitho crabs from reefcleaners.org for bubble algae. It happily ate all kinds of algae except for bubble algae

 

[tautog83]

Bought 3 from reefcleaners and they decimated the bubble algae in 2 weeks . I dont think they have a very long lifespan but still a year id imagine if you get them a decent size . I havent seen them pick at anything but i barely see one at any given time