Pleasantly Surprised

I've had a pretty bad cyano bloom that I have been ignoring for now cause I have had other stuff to worry about as of late. Last night I picked up a Foxface and turned the lights off and went to bed to help him deal with stress a little easier. He's still shy but I camped out to watch him come out and when he decides I'm good and gone I see him come out and start gobbling down the red slime. He goes back into hiding then comes right back to the cyano and I see him chomping down pretty sizeable chunks. Don't know if he will keep it up but I am pretty happy that somethin touches the stuff

 

In that case I am pleased for you!

Bet its a pretty fish - hope the appetite remains robust as far as the cyano goes!

 

good news... i think it is a learned taste for them, after i had it for a few weeks my yellow tang started grazing on it

 

I wish my fish would eat some of the cyano that is in my tank.

 

It's very striking. By far my favorite now. I was kinda bummed at first cause it dulled and hid in the rocks and when I saw it this morning it had turned vibrant yellow. Seems pretty relaxed when I'm not in sight too. I can't get a pic for a while cause it goes and hides when I move near.

 

Hi – glad to hear of your good luck…a little surprised to hear you have a cyano issue and you moved forward with fish – but none the less, it seems to be working well for you. Rabbitfish are known to be grazers of algae – I guess we can add cyano algae to the more specific list.

When you do find the time to address the cyano problem I am sure a few posts here can help point you in the right direction too !

 

Cyano is not algae, it is bacteria. While I'm glad to hear your FoxFace is eating it, I would recommend getting to the root of the problem. Low flow / high nutrients would be where to start looking.

 

Right – bacteria but so many people refer to it as algae I guess I have given in over the years ! lol sort of like explaining to people that ich is a fresh water thing and not a saltwater thing – regardless, solve the issue before stocking more fish is the smart move.

 

yeah i think my foxface died from bacterial infection and it happened during my first cyano outbreak. I don't think its good for your fish to eat bacteria and i'm pretty sure thats why mine died

 

I havent been totally ignoring it, just not going after it with all the effort I could be. I've been turkey basting it and siphoning it off rocks and pulling it off the sandbed, it just grows really fast and the next thing on my list is a phosban reactor or at the least some phosphate absorbing media for my filter. The cyano is all in one area of the tank that doesnt have too much flow going through it so I need to rearrange my powerheads. I'm just worried that moving them will cause another low flow area and it will simply move to that spot.