F8's strange new feeding behavior...

[G S P Freak]

Ok, I've never heard of anything like this so I thought you guys might want hear about it, it sure surprised me! Anyways, I caught my f8 puffer pecking at my dead coral while I was working on an essay, and decided to check out what he was eating. I was astonished to find that he was GORGING himself on hair algae growing in abundance on the dead coral!! I sat and watched him graze like a fat seacow for over 15 minutes, until he was to the point of looking like he was gonna explode! I've fed him peas before and he loved them, but I never saw him, or ever expected to see, him grazing on hair algae! He's well fed, perhaps a little too well at times, and I was quiet perplexed to see him eating algae. It was actually quiet comical, it's hilarious how this fish never ceases to amaze me. Just wanted to share! I thought it was pretty funny, and I've yet to hear of a puffer that liked his veggies!

[G S P Freak]

Heres a short clip, sorry bout the camera work lol.

[scpion]

Lucky u!

On a more serious note.. If there are abundance of hair algae.. Something is not quite rite.. Right?

[bertie 83]

There is always a root cause for algae but it could simply be too much light. So long as water checks out then no need to worry, I always had a patch on the back of my fahaka tank, got bored of cleaning it and it never spread. Never heard of a puffer eating it though lol

[Yael]

Maybe in the wild puffers find small crustaceans in the algae - are you sure that you don't have baby snails living there?

[G S P Freak]

I was having a problem with high nitrates last month, but I've got them under control now. They were at 40ppm due to an overdue filter cleaning and largely overstocking. After extensive filter cleaning, biweekly 50% wc w/ gravel vacuum, and my puffer systematically deciding to murder every tank mate except a single nerite snail, I've got levels down to a tolerable 20ppm. The parameters remain at decent levels, but the algae remains, tho only on the coral. I am guilty of leaving the lights on longer then needed.
As for snails or critters in the algae, there are none I'm aware of. Nerite snails reproduce sexually and need a male/female pair to do so, so I don't think there are baby nerites.

[RTR]

Nutrients (such as nitrate) + excess light -> algae.

Reduce the nutrients, reduce algae.

Reduce light, reduce algae.

Ideally, remove excess nutrients and control wattage and/or time to achieve balance.