Algae Eaters

[TwoTankAmin]

SAE will eat algae until the day they die. I know I have kept them now for a dozen years. I have taken them to 6 inches in size from very small/.
 
There are algae eating shrimp, algae eating snails and an assortment of algae eating fish of various shapes sizes and temperaments. Which ones will work in any given tank depends on the tank size, water parameters and tankmates. Amanos will eat fry and even attack small fish. Snails can be food for loaches and puffers. CAEs are just nasty and should not go in most tanks and they will stop eating algae. Algae eating plecos can damage more delicate plants like thin leaved swords rasping off algae. Some plecos will develop a love of fish slime coat and then they become more of a problem than a help.
 
Finally, different shrimp snails and fish eat different types of algae, no single one will take care of it all.

 

[DerpPH]

nothing really makes algae go away but the presence of live plants since they produce chemicals that makes the algae go away.
the lighting might also have something to do with it

 

[KieranBoyne]

My male bn pleco eats algae like nothing ive ever seen before. And i was told that otos are one of the best algae eaters, but they are weak and find it hard to acclimate.

 

[ericNH]

Well I just picked up 2 bristlenose and 1 rubbermouth pleco, hoping to make a dent in my algae.  I hate scraping it off the walls of my tank because then i get alot of floating algae junk which takes a while to get sucked up into the filters, and i cant help but think some pieces are getting lodged in places i can't see.  That said, I think Lillefishy gave excellent advice on the problem - don't rely solely opn algae eaters; you must keep your nitrates down as well. 

 

[sadguppy]

I have seven Siamese Algae Eaters altogether and they do a fab job at getting rid of and controlling black beard algae. The key is to make sure you get true SAEs and not false ones, flying foxes or other similar breeds. The only way to do this is to look up the differences and spend a long time in your LFS, and don't be afraid to take them back if they've been mislabelled!

In terms of algae on the glass, that's down to the location of the tank and I just scrub it every time I do a water change. There isn't a lot and I've seen the plecs grazing on it from time to time but the spot algae has to be removed by hand.

 

[delkimgreen1]

My step son reckons i should get half a dozen tiny shrimp to help control the algae, would this work and what type of shrimp are best ?
 
delkimgreen