different Caulerpa species could NOT co-exist?

[Seafan]

I used to have grape (wine-glass shaped) caulerpa and razor caulerpa growing in the same 55g tank. The razor never grew as fast as the grape. while both went "sexual" from time to time, the razor caulerpa did it more often and with greater percentages. eventually all razor in that tank die off. I wonder if the grape caulerpa was more efficient in absorbing nutrients, and out-competed the razor caulerpa? (at the time nitrate always measured 0, or undetectable with the test kits, with messy eaters like Triggerfish in the tank) Who has experience with growing multiple caulerpa species in the same tank? Anyone has similar experience?

Thanks.

[SPasse]

Seafan,

My refugium in my last setup had 3 or 4 different species of caulerpa. In my case the feather variety was the most prolific and left to “natural selection” would have dominated and eventually probably pushed out the other species.



To keep this from happening, I selectively pruned the different species to retain diversity. I wanted to make sure that my “algae filter” would not be completely destroyed if any one species of the caulerpa went through a sexual crash.

What causes one species to predominate is a good question. It could be at least partially based on the particular “nutrient, lighting, circulation balance in your particular setup but different species of caulerpa do also seem to have different growth rates also.

Regards,

Scott