Grass-Like Algae

Question

Algae on live rock   Hello,
    I am fairly new to the saltwater aquarium world. I have just recently started up a 14 gallon bio cube aquarium. Inside I have live rock, 2 clown, an angel, a shrimp, a goby, an anemone and a few other small fish. The tank was properly cycled and as far as I can tell all the levels are good and stable. There are a few questions I have. The first being, on the live rock there is what appears to be "grass" growing all over, covering the majority of the rock. I was just wondering if you could identify this plant, and provide some information about it. There is a picture attached showing the algae. My second question is, I have now had two dwarf-angels in the short period of time that I have had this tank. I noticed that my first angel's fins were deteriorating and the shrimp would climb onto the fish and pick at them, which I was told was normal. But over the course of a few days the shrimp actually began to eat a hole right through the side of the fish and the fish ended up dyeing. The shrimp has not messed with any other fish since then. I just replaced the first angel. So this leads to my next question, are skunk cleaning shrimp not compatible with angel fish?

Answer
Hi Bradley,

Welcome to the wonderful world of saltwater aquarium keeping...

The algae that you have growing is Green Hair Algae. You can control this by keeping the nitrate, phosphate and silicate levels to a minimum. This can be accomplished by not overfeeding, with aggressive protein skimming, and by doing regular water changes using Reverse Osmosis water.

Regarding the pygmy angels, I would not recommend keeping them in a 14 gallon aquarium. I also would not recommend keeping a pygmy angel in a 14 gallon with a pair of clownfish, because a pair of clownfish will be very territorial and can be aggressive towards pygmy angel species, especially in smaller aquarium systems.

More than likely the deterioration appearance to the fins on your angel was caused from continuos squabbling and nipping from the other fish in the tank.

The skunk cleaning shrimp is compatible with almost all reef fish, including the angel fish.

I wish you luck and success with all your future saltwater aquarium endeavors.

Sincerely,
David

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