Other than lawnmower blennies -

[Spanky]

What other comb tooth blennies are there that eat hair algae? Are there any that are more colorful?

[Mkelly]

http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/z...Egraveieri.htm


http://species.fishindex.com/32

Second link is a lot of pic's but very litlle info. I would say pick a fish you like then read up to make sure they wont munch your corals. I Never knew they could be agressive toward other fish but Malcom is a big boy so it should be fine.

[Mkelly]

Interesting lil guy

http://species.fishindex.com/photo_3..._striatum.html

Be nice if this guys color were directly related to diet and habitat huh? To obvious though
http://species.fishindex.com/photo_3...frontalis.html

If ya like fine details..
http://species.fishindex.com/photo_2...nderbilti.html

This guys just stunning.
http://species.fishindex.com/photo_2..._imitator.html

http://species.fishindex.com/photo_2...teroptera.html

Purdy!
http://species.fishindex.com/photo_3...ysospilos.html

http://species.fishindex.com/photo_2...s_auritus.html

I would think a lot of these are rather hard to come by.

[Geoff]

all of the blennies i have had were more interested in eating the diatom agae than hair. i have never seen mine eat the actual hair algae, they just seem to be eating the diatoms off of it.

obviously the hare is great, but with Big Red that is out. my S. magnificus is also a big hair algae eater. i was hoping it would eat another type but it prefers the hair.

G~

[Alice]

Get to acclimating some Mollies, Jerel

[tdwyatt]

Siganus rules, all others... consume diatoms etc...

but then again, you'd have to go to the Pacific to get one...

[salt creepette]

Alice, can you really seriously acclimate mollies to live in your saltwater tank? is that ok, or is it too stressful for them? Ive seen it done...over what time frame would it take?

[Alice]

Yes you can; and Jerel and I talked about it once but I'll be danged if I can find my notes on the subject. I know someone in the PNWMAS had done it, I'll send him a note to post on this thread but Jerel should be able to clue us in.

What made me think of the mollies is that Jerel said they'll eat hair algae.

[JennM]

There's a fish farm in Puerto Rico that sells saltwater acclimated mollies.

I've done it - took about 6 hours to drip them over, no problems.

People used to (and some still do) use them to cycle their tanks. Some just drop them straight away into saltwater I wouldn't suggest that, but anybody can acclimate them over.

Jenn

[biomekanic]

IIRC, mollies are actually brack/saltwater in their native environment. I slow acclimated mine over the course of a week by putting them in a 10g tank and swapping out a gallon and a half of water a day - FW in the tank initially then a gallon and a half from my aquarium. I'm not sure I'd recommend them for hair algae control. I used a lawnmower blenny Istiblennius chrysspilos in my main tank, he did a great job and got it all cleaned up. Unfortunately, yesterday he became my first jumper casuality in about 6 months.