Looking for an algae-eater

[DaveW]

Can someone give me some surggestions on an algae eater. I'm just about to stock my 126lt tank and would like to get an nice elgae eating cat that grow to about 4 inches. It would be nice if it was easy to find in most lfs in the UK. And if possable a link to a profile would be very nice too.
Thanks

 

[emma12321]

Hi Dave,

your tank is just under 28 gallons so depending what else you have in there good algae eaters would be otocinclus, these grow to around 2 inches and like to be in groups of at least 3. Alternatively the rubber nose plec or the bristle nose plec would be good but these grow slightly bigger than the 4 inches you want, up to 6 inches. Just use a search engine such as google and you'll find loads of information.

Hope this helps

Emma

edit: The fish index on the front page has profiles for these species.

 

[DaveW]

First, sorry for the late reply.

If I understand from other treads, Plecs produce a lot of waste? So if I had a group of 3 Otocinclus, which would be about 6" of fish would it be the same amount of waste? And would they eat as much algae as 1 Plec? Sorry for all the questions but I like both, but with the other fish I would like, I can only have one or the other.

 

[breezer40]

If you have the room I would go for the Bristtlenose. They are great little workers and so cute

 

[DaveW]

I must admit I do like the Bristtlenose, but I'm not sure. I've got a week before I go to the lfs, so I'll look for any more options. Have you any?

 

[breezer40]

Bristlenoses or Ideas?

There are quite a few small Algea eaters but the two most common have already been suggested.

 

[boxman]

BN's are great. Ottos are even better!

 

[DaveW]

I did see a rubbernose plec today, but just read that you might only see it once a week! Do the bristtlenose hide a lot?

 

[Weaver]

I bought 4 bristlenose yesterday and put 2 each in my 3ft and 4ft tanks.They started work nearly immediately and havent stopped since!
They have been on view nearly all the time either stuck to the glass or nibbling the driftwood( which they love apparently)
In fact one of them is stretched out on it at the moment

 

[@ombomb]

My BN will hide if you peer into the tank or move suddenly around it, but spends most of her time out and about. They are lovely fish, that show no aggression towards their tank mates, but will not be bullied either, are extremely resilient and are a big help in keeping the tank algae free.

 

[jollysue]

I'm a novice at figuring fish population #'s. But I would think that 6" of plec would be much more fish than 6" of oto. And the oto's 6"would be more than the neon's 6". This for two reasons:

Otos are soley herbavores; plec are omnivores. Don't know about fish but with mammals, an herbavore makes better/more biodegradable fertilizer than an omnivore. (And algae eaters make more waste per mass.)

An oto's mass is much less per inch than a plec.

If his tank and filtration can handle 6" of plec, it can probably handle more inches of oto.

This is novice speculation. Please educate me.

 

[DaveW]

I think I'll go for the Otos, mainly because I want to keep smaller fish, which means more fish. I don't want to over stock but I would like a good amount and the otos are cute.