View Full Version : black stuff on my plants
muskieswen
01-12-2004, 3:56 PM
I have been getting this black stuff on the leaf and edges of most of my live plants. What is this and how do I get rid of it? I tried scraping and it does not work. My ottos go over it and it is still there.
Black hair algae. Not any easy way I have found to get rid of it. SAE's are supposed to be good at eating it. I normally just cut the leaf off before it starts to spread.
muskieswen
01-13-2004, 8:33 AM
tkos,
I do not believe it is black hair algae. It follows the edge of my sword plants and also looks like little patches all over the leaves. I am turning the lights down to only 10 hrs a day and am going to 1 feeding a day for my fish. Maybe this will help.
My balck hair algae does grow like that, along the edges and often in patches. Eventually it will cover the whole leaf. At least that is the only idea I have. If that is the case I would cut the leaf off and do a water change. Always do a water change after trimming so the algae spores get taken away and not spread through the tank.
djlen
01-13-2004, 12:02 PM
Depending on the size of the tank, if it is BBA, you can pick up an SAE. They will eat this algae.
They will grow to approx. 4" so that is a consideration and why I mention the tank size. Also, be sure and get a 'true' SAE, not a Chinese Algae Eater or one of the other pretenders.
Len
muskieswen
01-13-2004, 12:11 PM
It is a 55 gal tank. I have heard of these but my lfs does not have any. Are they hard to come by?
They can be. Quite often stores caryy false SAE's or else flying foxes. Neither of which are very good at eating algae. I have also heard that rosey barbs are good at eating i but I have never kept them.
Timmain42
01-13-2004, 2:14 PM
Here (http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/) is an article on SAE identification, w/ pix.
Try to get a couple of young (2-3") SAEs, if you can. IME, they seem more willing to eat long algae when they are younger.