Fish That Eat Algae

[colin upsher]

hi all , can some one tell me whats the best fish to eat algae .thanks. . .

 

[kribensis12]

Welcome to the forum! What size tank do you have?

 

[CrashingWaves]

I'll assume you have a small tank, since it's always the safest thing to do. In which case I'd suggest otocinclus catfish.

But yes, knowing what size tank you have and what fish in it, would be helpful

God Bless,
Joshua

 

[kribensis12]

Mollies work good too.

 

[CrashingWaves]

Mollies work good too.

They don't really clean the glass though. At least they never did in my experiences with them. Not to mention then you have to worry about the other fish in the tank being alright with having a bit of salt in the water.

God Bless,
Joshua

 

[kribensis12]

True, but they did eat a fair amount in my tank's, and still do! Also, baby fish seem to love algea

 

[coldmachineUK]

Depends on the kind of algae, I guess. If it's the usual powdering on the glass then otos are your best bet. If it's hair algae or that sort of thing then mollies work well.
Plecs are not such a great choice (esp. common plecs for obvious reasons): they tend to produce a lot of waste for all the 'clean up' they reportedly do.

 

[altselgreen]

My platys do a nice job of cleaning up the algae. If I need to clean the glass, I use one of those algae cleaning magnets...Mag-Float I think its called. Easier than putting you're hand in I can tell you.

 

[Amunet]

Well we recently got a few platies and they peck at the algae. One of them had a nice long string of green poop to prove it heh

 

[CrashingWaves]

Plecs are not such a great choice (esp. common plecs for obvious reasons): they tend to produce a lot of waste for all the 'clean up' they reportedly do.

I've only kept a few species of pleco in my years of keeping fish, but from my experience, the common pleco does the best job in keeping the glass clean. I don't really think they produce that much waste, nothing more than is to be expected. I do pretty consistant water changes though, so it never really builds up.

Just saying, I'm not saying the thread starter should get a common pleco, since they get so large .

God Bless,
Joshua

 

[PRW1988]

Depending on the size of the tank, and the species of fish being kept, there are a few algea eaters out ther.

Oto cats (otociculas -spelling?-) should be in a shoal of atleast 5, these little guys do a great job at cleaning algea, but I'd recommend having live plants for them and a tank of atleast 30gallons.

Snails, these guys are alright at cleaning algea, well suited for smaller aquariums, the rule of thumb for snails is 1 for every 3-5gallons. If you've got a tank of about 10gallons then these guys would be great. However the do take a while to clean all the algea and even then it does look like streaks of clean glass and algea covered glass.

Chinese or Simase(sp?) algea eaters, these guys grow pretty big (I've heard of ones reaching 10"), these do a good job at cleaning algea when young and small, however once they reach about 4" they begin to suck the slime coats off other fish (thin bodied, slow moving fish such as Angel fish and discus).

Plecos, probably the best cleaners of algea out there. There are quiet a few species that are suited to tank 15gallons and up, Bristle nosed plecos are the most common algea eaters for smaller tanks as they stay small (about 5-6") and they do a fairly decent job of cleaning algea. There are larger plecos such as commons and Gibis that do an excellent job of cleaning algea, unfortunatly they grow to a maximum size of around 2 feet, and they do produce alot of waste! Most people will still buy a common or gibi pleco for tanks 25gallons and up and get rid of them when they reach a certain size (I get rid of mine once they're about 8-10").

Hope this helps you make the right choice. Aswell, there's always the non-fish solution. Go to your LFS (local fish store) or LPS (local pet store) and buy an algea scrapper and magnet. These things work very nicely and all you have to do after is scoop out the excesse floating algea. Quiet simple really, plus you don't need to worry about your tank being overstocked or the algea cleaner growing too large.

Hope this helps,

Ryan

 

[artsapart]

Can't remember for the life of me what it was called but I used to have a fish that had a sucker for a mouth and would clean the tank, seem to remember that it had little barbs hanging of it as well but its so long ago!

 

[coldmachineUK]

There are larger plecos such as commons and Gibis that do an excellent job of cleaning algea, unfortunatly they grow to a maximum size of around 2 feet, and they do produce alot of waste!

Exactly! A friend of mine has an 18" gibiceps (sailfin plec), and I have never seen so much poop coming out of a fish in my life! Really, it's not adviseable to use plecs as a cleaner fish because it doesn't balance out with the waste you'll be adding to the tank as a result. Great fish, I keep an LDA08 myself, but not to clean the algae. I keep him because I like him. If you want an algae cleaner, you can't go wrong with otos. Algae = gone, waste = minimal.