Can anyone recommend an algae eater?

[Cali]

Stuck the two fellas in, expecting them to have enough food for weeks, and the next morning, hey presto! Shiny and good as new!

Me too!!! Me too!!!

...that is so funny.... I was like, "Oh, yeah, they'll have food for a week or two...."



I woke up and was like, "Oh, my! These things are like hungry bears or something!" I was afraid they were going to start eating the slime coats of my angelfish so I ran out to the store and bought some algae disks for them that next day.

 

[Origami Gourami]

Thing is, when I bought them, they were in a tank full of big and small Otos, but when i got them home and had a good look, i realised the lady had given me two of the smallest piddly ones. I thought they'd never even make a dent in the algae, but they've doubled in size (about 1.5-1.75" now) and are total fatties!

2 Otos and 2 Corys make up the maintenance dept of my tank, sweeping, cleaning and hoovering all day long, bless 'em! However, the cutest thing is when two oblivious Corys starts snuffling round a feeding Oto and startle each other, mayhem and much 'whowhatwhenwhere' ensues!

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I don't agree with buying animals simply for their abilities (or non in many cases as they don't all do it) to eat algae. I am not sure if you still have the cory you mentioned in your 1st post but, you shouldn't have just one cory, they are a schooling fish.

Get an algae cleaner. You get magnet ones and ones on a plastic andle. These are both very effective. You could also try to determine what is causing the algae. I don't think any tank should have that much. One of my tanks have a fair bit but this is because it's in direct sunlight for a short time in the morning.

HTH

 

[DrOizo]

Be careful when getting SAE's and CAE's because when they mature they turn bad sama: bad and like to beat up their friends, But 1 should be ok on its own. In a small tank there is no where for the other S/CAE's to hide when one is bullying them

 

[noelberg]

This may be slightly off-topic, but what about snails for algae-cleaning? I'm worried about future algae outbreaks because my tank gets some natural sun in the morning then I turn the light on between the time i get home from work until bedtime. I have some java ferns and a pleco. Do the snails affect the inches of fish to tank size ratio?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Be careful when getting SAE's and CAE's because when they mature they turn bad sama: bad and like to beat up their friends, But 1 should be ok on its own. In a small tank there is no where for the other S/CAE's to hide when one is bullying them

I'm pretty sure that only applies to 'false algae eaters', as in chinese flying foxes or sucking loaches. Siamese Algae eaters are actually best kept in a pair of or a group as they are much smaller and are considered good community fish. Mine are great.

noelberg - I think snails are very good at lgae cleaning but I think they will affect your inch of fish per gallon ratio because I think they poo a lot.

HTH

 

[DrOizo]

Really I thought it was CAE's and I thought my Flying fox was just an angry bugger He he Thanks CS