abalone as part of a clean-up crew

[JohnD]

I was cruising around etropicals.com looking for information on purchasing a clean-up crew when I saw abalone. They recommended 1 per 25 gallons. I have 2 tanks, a 30 gallon and a 37 gallon, that are both in serious need of a clean-up crew.

I have hair algae on the LR, tanks sides and botton (the 37 is a bare bottom). Will the abalone eat in all of these areas? What experiences does anybody have with these?

 

[Anonymous]

hi.
I brought abalones twice for my tank, and they are not cheap. In both cases, they die after a few weeks. Don't know why. Some people have good experience with them, but I am not one of them.

 

[danmhippo]

My abalone is not fond of filamentous algae (hair or macro), it is more fond of detritus and diatoms on the glass. Mine is hardy, survived through a temp spike. I had it for over 2 years.

 

[SPC]

I always thought that abolone were from cooler waters.
Steve

 

[danmhippo]

No, there are tropical abalone from Pacific. I have heard of some are from the Caribbeans.

 

[SteveP]

They're primarily diatom eaters (at least the one I have is). It hides behind my overflow during the day and grazes the glass at night. He covers a lot of ground during that time though, probably more than turbo snails. Plus he'll get bigger than them.

Steve
8{I

 

[JohnD]

If he/she eats diatoms, that is okay with me. I quess I will still have to get some red legged hermits for the hair algae.

Thanks for all of the replies.

 

[bioscot]

the only thing that wiped out my hair algae in a 50 gallon tank was a pair of royal urchins..They are awsome!!

 

[adamsaquatics]

Scot, are royal urchins reef safe? George

 

[bioscot]

yes george, they are safe and have been a great addition to the tank. One day one of them looked like don king with hair algae coming up form his body

 

[EmilyB]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by adamsaquatics:
<strong>Scot, are royal urchins reef safe? George

</strong><hr></blockquote>

The royal (tuxedo) urchin will graze your coraline algae as well. I don't know if this is after the hair algae is gone

as I don't have that stuff. Mine gets moved around a bit to do tank cleaning, and a small tank will show his coral munching as buffed areas very quickly (some say this actually helps spread coraline).

 

[Anonymous]

I added a royal (tuxedo) urchin a couple of months ago to help with a little hair algea problem. I've seen him eat hair algea and coraline. I don't know if he is helping coraline to spread, but he's not eating enough to be a problem IMHO. I think I'll keep him. He's pretty cool and doesn't bother anyting.

I've never had an abalone but a friend of mine has had one for over a year in his reef without any problems.

Louey