Hair Algae Eater?

[Iron Man]

I'm beginning to get hair algae in my tank. Before I can afford to heavily plant and CO2 it.....what can I get to eat the hair algae? Its growing on the leaves of the plants, etc.

BTW - I just bought a huge expensive Malaysian piece of driftwood and I do NOT want it eaten by plecos or anything else that may diminish its appearance/size.

Any help would be appreciated from you fine folks!

David

 

[yvez9]

american flag fish eat hair algea

just put them in your tank and don't feed the fish for a few days

 

[SirMinion]

This is very interesting, I've just googled and read up on Jordanella floridae and they claim them as a miracle cure for all forms of hair and blanket algae.

I have an ongoing problem with hair algae in our comunity tank with is barely controlled with chemicals that I'd rather not use.

Does anyone know if these fish are available in the UK?

/edit/ Hah, I might have guessed. I've just done a search of TropicalFishFinder.co.uk and it seems that Shotgate has them.
Shotgate seems to stock just about every species of fish in the entire world!

 

[Iron Man]

I had stumbled across that very same fish on that website weeks ago and forgot about it. I read so much information in a day when I'm researching something. At the time I didn't pay much attention because I was looking at driftwood and plants....but thanks for that link!

I was planning on a lot of platies but maybe I'll replace them with these?

David

 

[rdd1952]

I read in a post somewhere that someone said they were actually killifish but I'm not real familiar with the species. Their tails and fins do kind of resemble some killifish.

 

[Iron Man]

hmmmm

I've read that killifish only live for a year at a time due to their natural habitat having yearly droughts. Only their eggs survive in the mud when left behind.

I'm not paying $5 for a fish to live only 1 year on me.

 

[SirMinion]

hmmmm

I've read that killifish only live for a year at a time due to their natural habitat having yearly droughts. Only their eggs survive in the mud when left behind.

I'm not paying $5 for a fish to live only 1 year on me.

Not all killifish, just some species.

It seems that the flagfish used to be regarded as a cichlid, but is now placed in a genus all of its own.

 

[Dwarfs]

This is very interesting, I've just googled and read up on Jordanella floridae and they claim them as a miracle cure for all forms of hair and blanket algae.

I have an ongoing problem with hair algae in our comunity tank with is barely controlled with chemicals that I'd rather not use.

Does anyone know if these fish are available in the UK?

/edit/ Hah, I might have guessed. I've just done a search of TropicalFishFinder.co.uk and it seems that Shotgate has them.
Shotgate seems to stock just about every species of fish in the entire world!

If they eat the algae, let me know, these fish are almost common near me and we have some hair algae problems going through a few tanks

 

[Iron Man]

Well I've been doing some googling on them and the jury is still out on them for me. It seems they can get a little aggressive according to some and WILL get aggressive when breeding....this may be why they were thought to be cichlids? I don't know.....but I'm starting to look into amano shrimp and the like.

I'm already partial to snails for most algae so why not shrimp for what they can't get to? I don't think a nice population of shrimp should have a problem being predated on in a heavily planted tank. 200 of them could hide inside my new piece of driftwood alone!

The only fish I really worry about finding the shrimps tasty would be the six angelfish I plan on keeping...even though they aren't known for it.

 

[colegamby]

a few of the sites ive read say the flags are killis. most said if you wanted no aggression from them to keep single gender groups to prevent mating

 

[Iron Man]

After doing more reading I think I may go with Cherry Shrimps and Amano Shrimps as both eat things the other doesn't. The Cherry is supposed to eat most types of algae (though hair algae isn't mentioned specifically) and Amano Shrimps eat only hair algae and detritus. That couple with a couple apple snails and Malaysian trumpets should keep my 55 gallon in check! No?

 

[purple_drazi]

I'm not paying $5 for a fish to live only 1 year on me.

I had black beard algae growing all over my rocks and plants and if I could have spend 5 bucks on a fish to get rid of it I would have handed over a fiver with a smile on my face. even if the fish was going to croak in a year.

I bought 4 SAEs to deal with my black algae. Made the "no quarantine tank" critical error. Within days I started losing fish and within 3 weeks I had lost 2 of the SAEs, one guppy, all my panda corys and all of my neons.

And on top of everything the SAEs didn't do anything about getting rid of the black algae.

I had to strip all of the plants out, scrub out the tank and start over with all new fish and plants. Cost me a darn sight more than 5 bucks I can tell you that.

<edited for swearing>

 

[NikkiY]

This is very interesting, I've just googled and read up on Jordanella floridae and they claim them as a miracle cure for all forms of hair and blanket algae.

I have an ongoing problem with hair algae in our comunity tank with is barely controlled with chemicals that I'd rather not use.

Does anyone know if these fish are available in the UK?

/edit/ Hah, I might have guessed. I've just done a search of TropicalFishFinder.co.uk and it seems that Shotgate has them.
Shotgate seems to stock just about every species of fish in the entire world!

Rosy barbs is my solution for hair algae. As long as I don't keep them too full, they simply eat up all the hair algae.

Nikki

 

[Fishist]

It seems that the flagfish used to be regarded as a cichlid, but is now placed in a genus all of its own.

It's a good looking fish that I have never come across.


EDIT: Spelling

 

[yvez9]

I have 2 in my 20 gallon

If i feed them flake food and forzen foods they will slack off on the algea, but when i slack on the feeding, they minch up hair and beard algea all day long.

they do a decent job IMO
I think I'll stock two more cause they look cool too!