Best Algae Eater??

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macfisto

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 13, 2005
Messages
47
Location
Louisville, KY
Hello,

My planted tank has just finished cycling with some zebra danios and white clouds, and I am going out today to get some cory cats and algae eaters. I have begun to get some "hairy/dusty" algae on the leaves of my plants and was wondering what the best algae eater would be to take care of this. Would an Oto do a good job on this type of algae? I have heard that the Siamese Algae Eater or Flying Fox does a good job of this but is also hard to find and somewhat aggressive and territorial. Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!
 
otolineus (sp?) would be the preferred vaccum! FF and SAE are effective, but it's hard to get the right species, and they all tend to get lazier as they get older. . .and territorial. Not sure how big yur tank is, but people usually get larger groups of otos.

HTH :eek:
 
what you describe is brown diatom algae, and ottos are about the only fish who readily consume it.
brown diatoms disappear once the tank has matured (1-6 months), so don't go too overboard with ottos, as eventually you'll have to feed them algae wafers or they'll starve.
3-4 is fine.
 
What about Florida Flag Fish or Rosey Barbs? Ive had a reduction in algae with them.

Course it could also be that I stopped feeding as much :oops:
 
Otocinclus would work great for diatoms, but be very sure the tank is completely cycled and water params are stable, as it is very common to lose a few once you get them home. The ones that live past the first couple of weeks usually wind up being very hardy and long-lived, however. Be sure there is plenty of the diatoms around the tank for them to feed on.

Also don't add too many fish all at once. Maybe get your cory cats now, then wait 2 weeks for some good algae to build and get the otos then.

American flag-fish are great for hair algae and other more tenacious types of algae, as are the rosy barbs. They are very interesting active fish.
 
Yeah, the flagfish and rosy barbs will eat BBA, but not the diatoms (which are actually not algae, but a tiny microorganism)
 
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