Need an ID please - Strange bubble things

Certain Tangs will feed on Valonia such as Sailfins and the Emerald Crab will also consume this algae!

 

The wonders of new live rock additions!! And people still think some of us are crazy for nuking all our rock before it goes into our tank!!!

 

I'd never nuke my rock. Part of the excitement and intrigue of this hobby is dealing with new uncertainties and getting some really cool freebies.

 

Yep thats what i was thinking, emerald crabs. I remembered it being some sort of Crustacean....but not exact name. somehow i thought shrimp......

 

and yeah, i wouldnt ever nuke LR, cause then why would i spend 6.99 a pound when base rock is $1 a pound at my LFS?

 

Bubble algae can certainly spread rapidly, my roommate has a FOWLR that has a TON of it in there. He's trying to cultivate macroalgae in it, and calls it his sea garden! The bubble algae does look kinda cool especially right after the snails clean it off, very iridescent.

 

They do look cool, one I have even looks like a pearl. I'll carefully pluck them out tonight though. I'm going to be on a business trip for 7 days I don't need any surprises whem I get home. lol

 

ive had my fair share of bubble algae trouble and boy they are hard to stop when they take a hold of your tank just befor xmass I had a trip to Jolly old England for 2 weeks and when I returned about 10or20 had turned into literaly to 1000's. It took me half of xmass day to remove them from the tank. I put 2 Emeralds in the tank to finnish off any of the remaining algeas but they just could not keep up with the rebirth of the infestation.
At the moment I havent seen my tank for just over 2mths(working overseas) and my G/F says the Algae its come back with avengence, she tells me theirs bubbles on the Emerald crabs backs its that bad!!!! egsagerations of coures.
I think I will be having to take some drastic measures in the near future.
Oh the largest Ive seen would have been the size of a medium marble.

 

Good news (I hope) when I got home from work, either my tang or my emerald had eaten both bubbles. Actually if they didn't eat them it means they burst.

 

Unfortunately emerald crabs are a double edged sword in this case. Fact is, is that most of the time when emerald crabs go to eat the bubble algae, they end up bursting most of it, and the spores end up seeding across your tank... So it really becomes a never ending process once you invite that Emerald crab to dinner. Try and remove as much of it as possible with tweezers or the sort. It will spread alot slower if you don't invite crabs or fish to come and nibble on it.