What To Get To Eat Algae In 10g

[guppler]

I have this 10 gallon tank with 2 old and not particularly healthy female guppies that I have no intention of breeding and 5 fry that could move out eventually and a bunch of bronze cory fry that i plan to sell asap.
This tank happens to have a nice carpet of green algae covering a wall or 2 and most of the ornaments/furniture. I've had otos before, and they seem to get along great with gupies, but they don't live very long IME and I have been interested in (Farlowella acus) whiptail catfish for a while. I also like upside down alot and plan to get some eventually, but didn't think of them as an algae eater, until I read about them a few minutes ago. Maybe they wouldn't eat more algae than the cories.
Anyway. These farlowellas are bigger, or at least longer, than any tropical fish I have owned yet, and I've been telling myself I don't have a suitable tank for them, but I'm being tempted to reconsider. According to my book, they get to be "nearly" 5 inches long, but they are very thin like twigs. The book also says they will likely waste away without an abundant growth of algae. I have algae wafers and spirulina flakes too, but I get the impression they prefer fresh stuff, and I don't know how fast they will eat it all up. If my 29g was less crowded, i would put farlowellas in there for sure, if it had enough algae, which it doesn't at the moment. For the 10 g I would get 2 farlowellas because I think they like company, but any more than that would be definitely too big for 10g. I'm also wondering if they would be more sensitive about temperature changes and stuff. I have my guppy girls near a window in unheated tanks, which has been fine so far, because guppies and cories are pretty tough and flexible, but we have been considering geetting inexpensive small heaters even though we live in california and it I ve so far gotten by with only heating the comunity tank.
Anyway, does anyone have experience with farlowellas?
suggestions on something a little more exciting than otos for nibbling algae?
I will probably just get otos again if I don't get convinced that farlowellas would be OK or that upside downs really do vacuum algae or if someone suggests something else interesting.

 

[Mr.September15]

Try this:

What Kind Of Algae Eater Should I Get?



-Arrowhead

 

[Bloo]

Farlowellas are definitley not at all suitable for a 10 gallon - besides which, I've never ever seen them eat algae.
I've had some that have been larger than 5" - they are not agile and cannot turn easily. A 10 gallon tank would be a nightmare for them.
They (along with Oto's) need really good water conditions and are very "fragile".
You can perhaps fit in a couple of Oto's, but that's all. All other options (I know of) will get to big for the tank.

 

[guppler]

Well, I guess the farlowellas will have to wait. I thought they were more than 5 inches the last time I saw some for sale.

 

[guppler]

Wow, that was a lot to review, but worth it.
Thanks Arowhead for the pointer.
I am now very interested in some of those shrimp.
I've had ghost shrimp before, but just the cheep ones that are almost litterally a dime a dozen. They were fun to watch, but I got a little scared off by stories about them grabbing and eating live fish, and they don't always live long. I might just want to be more careful about what kind of shrimp I get. I thought shrimp were almost impossible to breed in captivity at all, but it sounds like there are species that can, and those might be the best if I can find some. I already have 3 species of snail in that tank and have been seriously considering putting a fourth species back in. I probably will Ivory apple snails look good in there, except they almost disabear. a green shrimp would really be fun. Well now I'm more in the invert category, but I guess lots of people start looking for algae eaters in catfish because we forget about other options.

Just to keep a little closer to the catfish topic, does anyone have comments about synodontis nigriventris for my tank or as an algae eater?
ps
how carnivorus are upside downs? Some labels at petstores make them sound scarey for any kind of fry. i would like to have them in my comunity eventually, but I need to at least rehome some cories first, and I've wondered if they might even eat fulgrown endlers, from some stuff that I've read, though I would be surprized if they did.

I'll probably go with a few shrimp and the snails that i already have, but I'm still interested in upside down cats in general, even if not for this tank.
I probably will eventually be breeding guppies in this tank again, but I want to rehome most of the cories first, and no males will be allowed with Girltwin or Lavendar, so I'm more likely to move fry in from next door at thiis point and keep boys out as much as possible. I do wonder about shrimp and guppies eating each other's kids, but I guess that's for another forum and another time.

 

[Fishy412]

i have 2 oto's in my ten who do a good job with what little algae i have. its a low bioload tank also

 

[sylvia]

You should be aware that snails produce a ridiculous amount of waste and therefore may be partly to blame for excessive algae growth. Similarly, too many hours of light (more than 8 hours is unecessary), over-feeding (one pinch a day should be enough), overstocking or not changing water often enough, can cause serious algae outbreaks. If you want to reduce algae growth permanently, don't ADD animals to the tank, take some out. In your case I'd get myself an algae scraper and thoroughly clean the tank until every last bit of algae has been removed. then I'd do a 90% water change. Then I'd add lots of very fast growing plants - things like elodea/anacharis or, if you have good lighting, cabomba or hygrophyla species work great. The plants compete with the algae and usualy win the battle, reducing algae growth. I'd also move some of the snails to another tank, leaving just one or two. Also, upside-down cats deffinately won't do anything for your algae and farlowellas, though they will eat some of it, aren't realy all that efficient (besides, as has been pointed out, they are too big). Shrimp would make good additions, however, and deffinately won't eat your fish. here's a link with a nice list of species: http/www.petshrimp.com/index.html Note that the last few under 'shrimp varieties' ---> 'machrobrachium type shrimp' CAN cause damage to fish and, also, make sure you aren't confusing shrimp with crayfish (which are not good tankmates for community fish).

 

[guppler]

I think that's the same link i got to indirectly from the one that says what kind of algae eater should I get. It is really cool. I don't know which ones I might find in local stores, so I might take some notes with me and see what's available when I rehome my cory fry.
As for the cray fish, well, I wouldn't get those for any of my tanks, maybe not even the big goldfish. My first apple snail came out of a store tank that had some blue lobster crayfish type critters, and they were litterally eating the snails alive. Most or the snails I have are little overpopulating rams horn and pond snails that I feed to my goldfish sometimes, but I do have a few trumpet snails in tanks 1 and 3 and the apple snails. If they go in this tank, I'll just put in some ivory baby ones. I have some almost as big as the LPS wants them and a fresh egg clump on the lid of my comunity.
I do have a pretty good supply of elodea/anacharis in this tank, as well as in the comunity, but I have't been gravel vacking as often as I should because of fry and homework and stuff. I vacuumed all my tanks last week and will do at least some this week also. This tank (1) is only partly next to the window, while tank 2 , (just inches away) is totally in front of the window. Tank 2 has had lots of algae in the past, but it's tank 1 that has a lot right now. It's not really bad, It just covers at least half the side wall closer to the window and the other tank and a little of the back, so I'm not worried, I just thought it would be fun to watch something eat it, and I wouldn't want it to get ouyt of hand, but I know some critters actually like a lot of algae, and I was thinking it might be fun to put some where i have a nice healthy supply to keep them happy. I had a different kind of algae in my cory fry tank that made the whole thing just look like pea soup, and that wasn't going away, so i took everything out and put the fry in tank 2 with the other girly guppies and more fry.
As for lighting, both my guppy girl tanks have incandescent hoods, but they tand to get 1 flourescent adapted bulb eacch, along with 1 incandescent, which might be "color enhancing or even a plant grow bulb, I forget which bulbs are actually in there, but I could check and put in more incandescent ones on purpose to keep them a little warmer. The window isn't very bright because it's facing north into a very shady yard with shrubs right against the window.
I try to keed some little bulbs and "banana" plants in most of my tanks, but I think those are mostly dormant at the moment.
Oh, I could be over feeding this tank too, because i try to feed any kind of fry more than once a day, and this one kind of dropped in population pretty fast recently with the deaths of some older girls and some boys that got moved up to the comunity. The tank next door is full of begging fry, and I forget that they don't eat the same amount of food sometimes. Actually, The herd of cories that are supposed to be moving out should be picking up most of the excess.

 

[jdcuneo]

I had algae problems in my 10 gallon and added some fast growing plants to use up more of the nutrients and a peppermint bristlenose. Within two weeks all the algae was gone (except some stubborn hair algae on one of my plants) and hasn't come back.
Peppermints stay pretty small, around 8-10cm so depending on your stocking level they might be suitable, I suppose any other small variety of bristlenose would do the same thing. Now that my algae is gone I feed them zuccini and spirulina wafers but the still spend plenty of time cruising the glass, plants and wood looking for algae.
Bristlenose apparently eat less algae when fully mature though.