Do Bristlenoses Actually Eat Hair Algae?

[Teelie]

I had a bad outbreak of hair/string algae in my 55g and it seemed to be taking over even with me yanking it out. I got 4 Gold BN's about 2 weeks ago and the stuff is now all but gone. I didn't get them for that, or even for cleaning algae (besides that horrid stuff, I had no other algae) and I always assumed they wouldn't eat it but I did notice them chewing around the general area on the driftwood it was growing on.

So, do they actually eat it or is this a strange coincdence that it just happened to start disappearing around the same time I got them?

 

[dwarfgourami]

Lucky you, mine don't.

 

[Bloo]

Indeed! Lucky you Mine never. They just ate the plants around the hair algae

 

[smithrc]

ours dont

 

[Teelie]

It must have been coincedence then. I wonder what it was that did kill it off so in the future I can do it again if need be.