A catfish (maybe ancistrus) to eat algae and not plants!!

xsu-xsu · Post by **xsu-xsu** » 09 Feb 2004, 14:46

I'm looking for a cat which will eat algae big-time but ignore my heavily stocked planted tank.

The tank is around 400 litres so would be too big for ottinculus vittatus really. My first idea would be ancistrus species, but I'm worried about my plants because when I had one before, I'm sure it was the bristle nose that was slowly stripping my vallis.

Any ideas?

INXS · Post by **INXS** » 09 Feb 2004, 17:38

I've had ancistrus suck the life outof numerous large plants - by the time I caught on. And then you have to chase them out of the tank

Depending on what kind of algae you are looking to control , there are different choices but none will magically clean everything up. You have to do some work with scrapers and toothbrushes on the greenspot , staghorn , BBA and hair algae.

Then there are these:

amano shrimp will pick at hair algae and fuzz , I think Amano himself reccomends 2/gal

otocinclus work great on diatoms and you can have a bunch of them - they won't touch hair algae or many other kinds

SAE will do well on diatoms and will eat other kinds of algae too - if you want results you shouldn't feed as they will eat the food and get lazy

Rosy barbs will eat hair algae and lots of it - again, don't feed

Mollies , especially the black ones also eat hair algae

Flagfish (jordanella ?) - hair algae

Those are some I have tried and had succes with.

xsu-xsu · Post by **xsu-xsu** » 09 Feb 2004, 19:47

Thanks for that INXS!!

Because I have zillions of corydoras, I have to feed these pellet and brine shrimp and bloodworm. I have another tank with SAE's and it is full of algae!! As you say, they get lazy and just eat whatever is being fed and can't be bothered with the algae!! This is probably going to be true for any fish that I put in there!!

So, what fish will eat algae and not plants? Will ottos eat plants? Or is it just easier to use a scraper!!

magnum4 · Post by **magnum4** » 09 Feb 2004, 19:54

IMO planted tanks if fully planted with the right equiptment you could out compete algae just with the plants alone.

1: 500grm CO2 unit with night time shut off, set to about 20mg/l - 30mg/l.
2: 4-6 light bulbs or 2 halogen units on for about 10-12 hours each day.
3: liquid fertiliser every 14 days.
4: Plants which grow fast and use up lots of nutrients
5: lightly stocked tank reguarding fish amounts and size.

These combined would be enough to out compete most types of algae, might seem like a large amount of money or investment at first but once set up doesn't cost much to run.

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 09 Feb 2004, 19:57

Hi!

Have you thought about reducing the nitrate in your tank? There must be a reason for this big algae problem you have and maybe you can selve this without "using" a fish against it. Using a fish for a purpose in the aquarium and then dumping it when it doesnt do its "job" well doesnt sound right in my mind. Lemna minor and Riccia fluitans are really good against Nitrate.

xsu-xsu · Post by **xsu-xsu** » 09 Feb 2004, 21:22

Nitrates are only 25mg/l, hardly excessive!! Lights are on for 9-10 hours a day with a four hour break between which apparently algae doesn't like!! I read that in PFK once!!