Black hair/beard algae? I know this is the wrong place to ask but it gets the most traffic so nerr

Ideally id get amano shrimp but they dont seem to exist in LFS's around here and i dont fancy forkin out £20/30 for a few shrimp online. So, oto's any chance? Obviously brown algae seems to be prefferd but im desperate Dont really want to go as far as to start dosing co2 etc just yet for the sake of algae.

My black algae problem got much better after I introduced the otos. You are right, if they have alternatives, they will eat those algae, but it seems that they do eat them.

well ive heard otos will not touch BBA/hair algae, they only eat Diatoms, green dust algae and green spot algae, atleast thats what ive found with mine, mine wont touch veggies but do sometimes have a nibble on an algae wafer, otos usually cost a LOT more than shrimp, so even buying otos in your LFS will be more expensive than buying shrimp through mail order/fleabay, my 4 otos cost me 20 quid! they are hard to get even in london, whereas shrimp can go for as little as £1.50 each plus postage, otos are worth having but they are better if you combine them with shrimp.

4 for £20!? you got ripped off big time! I get 4 for £6 at my LFS!

like i said hard to come by round here, they have really cheap tropica plants in the shop i got my otos from though, so it kinda evens itself out, theres lots of fish shops in london, but alot only have the bog standard stuff, but some are starting to come around to the planted side of the hobby, wholesale tropicals is a good example.

This post has been edited by fozziebear: Jun 13 2008, 02:45 PM

Seconded about being ripped off-I paid £1.50 / £2.00 each at my local Maidenhead Aquatics.

see but there is no MA in london and im not going all the way out into the sticks just for a few fish, its very limited living in london, i have to get a lot of my stuff through fleabay and online, surprisingly enuf with the otos i got a discount too... lol ive never seen em in another shop though that was the only time id seen them so i got em.

There about 1.50 each here aswell, seems we've got 2 sides here, one says yes the other says no

Erm...theres about 8 across London. Even if you ignore the St Albans and Weybridge ones, which aren't really London.

http://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/all_store_loca...tyId=3#store_45

morden is closest to me and even thats far, my local shops are wholesale tropicals, tachbrook tropicals, and pets pad.

Well thanks for the responses, shame 99% of them were about LFS in london and the price of oto's

Sorry, threadjacking and generally talking s**t is my way of covering my ignorance.

I've got one oto in my tank, and I've got so much of the green stuff he can't keep on top of it-so I don't know if he'll touch the beardy stuff.

You should get another 2-4 oto's at least since they are sociable fish that enjoy the company of their own kind .

Looking to pick some more up today, bought one a month ago then realised they need more company And the little bugger (whilst he's happy it seems) needs some company to deal with the algae bloom I'm experiencing.

Ill take that as a "Wont help with the black stuff but good for everything else".

honestly the best way to get rid of that ####ty algae is just to turn your lights off for a week and really realyl don't feed your fish alot... and put in some algae eaters... ottos mabey but the algae eaters will just chew through it and eat it all up... BUT the key is to underfeed and keep the lights off... I did that and it ELMINATED the algae outa my tank... its great

I can't think of any fish that would eat hair algae.

Seems my prayers were answerd, lfs had amano in today, needless to say i stocked up