Topic: A Few Words On Algae Eaters

[mother-teresa]

Oh my goodness! I have learned sooooo much from this! thank you!...before I found this website...the "super smart fish expert" from walmart sold me.... some ghost shrimp, a pleco, an upside down catfish (which was devoured by my pleco) and 2 gold snails.he said these all were the best for algae. they do ok, but not like how he made it sound

[clubb06]

so whats good for a agrassive tank of chichilds?? its a 40 gal with african chichilds.

[bulrush]

A razor blade. That's what I use. Seriously.

[Barcode711]

I needed a spatula for the brown algae I found on the sides of my marine tank.
Wish I actually took care of it.... 

[Lynda B]

This is such wonderful information! I knew I loved my mollies for a reason.... other than the fact that they are completely utterly unbelievably gorgeous.... 

[Mommycott]

Thanks for the info.  I'm one of those poor suckers who got stuck with a Chinese Algae Eater from the petstore.  Only after I get home to I read up on it to find out it grows to be 1' long and mean.  (Of course, perhaps I should have done my research BEFORE I bought the fish.)  I think I'm going to ask the petstore to take it back.  Since then I've read many articles that talks abuot what NOT to use for algae eaters but none that say what TO get.  Thanks again - very helpful!

[lzymiss]

dang,,,should have  read this  BEFORE getting  my chinese algae eater

[Ppulcher]

Neat list.  I can't believe it's taken me so long to find this thread.  There is one small error:  the American-Flagfish (Jordanella floridae) is not a livebearer, but an egg laying killifish.  They are excellent at eating algae though.

Another good livebearing fish that excels at eating algae is the Butterfly Goodied (Ameca splendens).

[Guppy King]

Great topic on algea eaters!

[ZenMeBaby]

I don't know why I never read this thread before...

A note about Otos, yes they are hard to acclimate but I wouldn't say 50% of them die.  I find my losses closer to 10-20%.  The trick is to buy healthy ones.  Stores' tanks are usually spotless and the Otos slowly starve.  I can't even get mine to eat veggies, they NEED algae.  I either buy them the day after they come into the store or from dealers who keep one or two in each tank for algae control instead of cramming them all in a super clean tank with nothing to eat.  I float the bag for 30 minutes or so, open it, pour out half the water into a bucket and clip the open bag to the inside wall of the tank.  Every 10-30 minutes (depends on what I'm doing) I pour a cup of tank water into the bag.  When the bag is full I dump most of the water out into a bucket leaving enough to dump the fish into the tank.  The whole thing takes an hour or two of waiting but if you're doing something else you won't notice.  Doing it this way I haven't lost an Oto in the last 10 or so I've bought.