Something To Eat Algae

[vancouver]

I've got lots of algae on the sides of one of my tanks.. I don't like scrubbing it.. I'm lazy I guess..

anyways, the tank has 3 keyholes, 2 geophagus jurupari, and 6 silver dollars.. All fish are 2'' or under.. the tank is a 40g cube. Fish will be moved to larger tanks as they grow... I've decided to set this tank as kind of a grow out.

I'm thinking apple snails.. I don't know why.. haven't had them really before.. thought it might be neat to chuck 5-6 of them in there..

I don't like octocinclus or whatever they are.. I don't think they're very hardy.

The generic algae eaters might be alright.. although I've heard they can be aggressive.

Might go with a regular pleco if I cant find anything better.. size isn't an issue.

I had tons of malaysian trumpet snails, but had the heater off for the summer.. forgot to turn it on now that the weathers been cold, and I'm pretty sure they are all dead.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Do I go with pleco? apple snails? algae eater?

 

[drango91]

ask the LFS, usually theyll have something, just dont get anything with the word chinese in it

 

[vancouver]

ask the lfs? lol.. they'll tell me to buy the most expensive thing in the store and convince me it's the only fish alive that eats algae.

 

[Marcos]

Bristlenose cat.

 

[Bozza]

American Flag Fish are suppose to be the best algae eaters. Not sure if they would be available to get at ur local LFS.

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

Chinese Algea Eaters are amazing. I had algea in one of my tanks a while ago, and i mean loadz absaloutly everywhere!, and bought one of these. you couldn't see algea anywhere unless you where really looking for it. it ate the algea all in one night. this fish does get aggresive when they get bigger and i bought mine when it was 5/6 inches.
trouble with pleco's is they eat for a bit, then rest for ages and then eat for a little bit more and then rest for ages again! CAE don't stop. they're really quick.
bristlenose's dont get too big. never had one of these tho.

sorry to change or hijack but is there an algea eater that eates brown algea?

x

 

[vancouver]

I've never seen bristlenose plecs around here before..

I don't think the lfs would know the difference between a chinese and siamese algae eater.. which is the one most commonly found?

I'd rather not get something aggressive.. these cute little silver dollars don't look like they'd be able to handle much aggression..

I guess I'll have to check the 2 lfs close to me tomorrow and see if they've got anything

 

[n3ont3tra]

I'm not sure if they'll eat algae off the sides, but I had a big fake plant in my tank that was covered in algae, and I got 4 platies and they cleaned it off in 2 days, completely spotless.

 

[vancouver]

I'm pretty sure platys would become food.. I actually have 2 platys in a 10g with a baby keyhole.. I used to have 6 or 7 platys.. as the keyhole has grown, it has been picking off the platys..

That keyhole was maybe 1''... these keyholes are 3''. It's gotta be something that wont be too aggressive, but also can handle a bit of heat.

 

[Anita]

pinkdolphin_113

sorry to change or hijack but is there an algea eater that eates brown algea?

http/www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm

Anita

 

[keepsfalling]

Bristlenose for sure!! 8)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i think a bristelnose is your best bet.

 

[HendrixTheOscar]

I took two plecs off my friends hands on Saturday as he's moving and left them in there about 6pm Saturday night. Came back Sunday and the tank was spotless. It was covered before as someone kept leaving the damned curtain open, algae was everywhere, and now it's just perfect! Good luck with something anyway mate. Pete

 

[Darkmoon Bettas]

The easiest way to tell is to look at the mouth. (Unless it's a strange color morph--"gold" and "marbled" will be Chinese algae eaters, I'm not aware of any common color morphs for the Siamese, so this goes for the normal brown/black striped kinds that do look similar.)

Chinese algae eaters have a "sucker" mouth with the rasping disk like ottos and plecos.

Siamese algae eaters have a normal-shaped mouth like most fish and tiny whiskers (and they're usually less flat on the bottom.)

Chinese algae eaters get horribly agressive as they get larger and tend to prefer to try to suck slime and scales off slow-moving fish than eat algae. Siamese algae eaters don't develop this behaviour and in fact stay efficient, practical algae eaters their entire lives. (And they even will eat hair algae,one of a very few species to do so.)

That said, I also highly recommend mystery snails/apple snails. They're my main algae control army in the vast majority of my tanks.

 

[Kevstir]

sorry to change or hijack but is there an algea eater that eates brown algea?

Otto's love brown algae, i added to my newly cycled tank which had a lot on the back of teh tank , woke up in the morning and it was all gone