SAE's to the rescue!

[NorCalAl]

While my algae problem has slowly been diminishing, yesterday I stumbled across a tank of SAE's in San Jose. Despite it being 106 outside and four and a half hours from home, the SAE's are now residing in my 65 - and chowing down on the algae!
I'd gone the route of plecos (no help - wrong plecos!) and oto's (wouldn't eat the algae once it got to a certain length on the plants, mainly worked on the glass!) with little success. I've been having more luck getting the nutes correct for the tank and with the tank actually aging.
But let me tell you, anyone having an algae problem, while you do need to get to the root cause and solve that, having these SAE's is the best thing that's happened. I had to go nearly 200 miles from home to get em, but WOOHOO!
I just had to share.

 

[crazycat]

i agree! SAEs are about the best working fish out there for demolishing algae--especially beard algae. they ROCK! watch out though--they get big--mine are about 5.5" now...

 

[Peyton]

Yep, IMHO there is no fish as good as SAE's when it comes to all around algae eaters. Only thing they won't eat is the hard green algae that grows on the glass. I found my three at different places at different times. Never seen them for sale anywhere in two years at least. Good find.

 

[NorCalAl]

WOW! 5.5 inches! I guess that means I'll just have to get a bigger tank. Dang. You know what though...I'll have to do something about my sig...it's at the maximum line limit now...

I'd probably driven to every large lfs in NorCal before I stumbled across them in San Jose at Dolphins. Another thing about them - they have a HUGE selection of stuff, not just fish and it's very close to online prices.
Even tho it's 4 hours from me, I'll be going back.

 

[azn_fishy55]

True, Dolphin has alot of rare fish/common plants.If you can drive to SJ,I reccomend a trip to Ocean Aquarium in SF which had a LARGE variety of rare fish/inverts and as well as some rare-ish plants.Also if you go to Ocean Aquarium,might as well stop by Aqua Forest for their rare plants and sometimes rare fish.