kinds of algae fish like to eat???

[Magnum Man70 184]

so, nearly everyone has heard about spirulina algae, we eat it, fish eat it… however digging around on the internet, it appears to grow in water most of our fish would not survive in, so it’s likely not a native food for most aquarium algae eaters…
“Habitat: Thrives in subtropical and tropical alkaline, saline, and soda lakes (high pH of 8.5 to 11.0 and rich in carbonates and bicarbonates)”
so I’m curious what algae types are native to our fishes areas, and that they eat most often???

I’m guessing rift lake cichlids may encounter spirulina in the wild, but it sounds highly unlikely, in the areas native to hillstream loaches, or in the Amazon region…

 

[Magnum Man70 184]

I found these searches pretty interesting…

Google Search

( south american )

Google Search

( hillstream loaches )

Google Search

( rift lake cichlids )

 

[GaryE30 28]

Most of what we offer in aquariums is improvisations. I think your question is really impossible to ever get a clear answer to. Algae is astonishingly diverse, and in questions like that, "fish" is a meaningless word. One fish species might favour one type of algae. Another might specialize in a different one. Their teeth, digestive systems, habitats - all are different. And all are probably different from what thrives in our tanks.

Aufwuchs seems to grow in intense sunlight in mineral rich water, at least in Malawi and Mexico. And do the fish eat it by choice, or does it get caught up when they feed on the things that live in it?

Even if we discover an algae that one hillstream feeds on - we aren't going to be able to get it anyway.

I feed bugs to my African killifish. But I saw the bugs they eat, and I've never seen any of them here. My beloved Epiplatys ate small spiders, and will eat any small spider I'd offer them, but if there's a specific nutrient in a type of Gabonese spider that they need, there's not much I can do about it. So we take guesses and substitute. Underwater algae? Biofilm? Again, biofilm is many things in many environments.

Your best shot to prove me wrong (if you do, I'd be happy and would love to know!) might come if you can find detailed stomach content analyses of wild caught fish. But info on which types of plant matter etc rarely appear in detail. Sometimes, you can get lucky.

 

[Magnum Man70 184]

I watched that video of the big Amazon display in spain, and was thinking. I wonder how true their biotope was, and if the trees with the roots in the water have any of the native algae and bacteria, and micro fauna, and that their are likely fish that either don’t do well, in our tanks, or never make it to the hobby at all, because they desire, or require a specific organism, that we can’t provide in our various country’s, away from those fish’s origin???

I’m trying some oddball hillstream species again, because they are available my hillstream tank is pretty good at keeping them, however many of the odd ones don’t live long, I suspect because of the reasons listed above… as time goes on, that mature tank changes and becomes more natural… weather I’m there yet, is yet to be told, but it will be a great day, when I achieve some of these oddballs thriving…

 

[Magnum Man70 184]

I’m picking up that 90 gallon, thick glass, corner tank today, that I’ve posted about a few times, and similar to what I’m doing to the hillstream tank, I think I want to try rift lake cichlids, as our well water is best for them, and try growing aufwuchs in that tank as well… just need to get the had wood floor down in that room, before I can add the tank…