Diatom Algae Eaters?

All posts regarding the care and breeding of these catfishes from South America.
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msheresy
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Diatom Algae Eaters?

Post by msheresy »

Will any plecos eat diatom algae?


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DBam
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Re: Diatom Algae Eaters?

Post by DBam »

Simple answer is no. Care to be any more specific to your needs?
lfinley58
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Re: Diatom Algae Eaters?

Post by lfinley58 »

Hello Msheresy and DBam,

I have to disagree with DBam. Numerous plecos (loricariids) naturally feed on varying amounts of attached diatom algae families/genera/species. Attached is the key word in that such free floating algae is not really easy for them to ingest. It should be noted that some species are thought to possibly do some filter feeding of free algae (in the aquarium aka green water) but as far as is known this is a rare situation.

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Re: Diatom Algae Eaters?

Post by zeebo »

hi, not sure if I had the same type of algae as you are talking about , it was brown, growing on everything, rocks,slate, caves. glass. I have 2 L128's in this tank, didn't touch it. Got a big farlowella and he cleaned it up in 2 days. No more algae since. HTH. Georgie
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DJ-don
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Re: Diatom Algae Eaters?

Post by DJ-don »

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the common brown algae you see in tanks is a diatom algae??
So there is a fair few plecos that would happily clean it up.

It all depends on the specifics of the tank, on deciding which pleco would suit your needs.
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