what kind of algae eater for a planted aquarium...

O

Obsidian

AC Members
Dec 13, 2004
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Pacific Northwest
My stupid Chinese Algae eater... the one that I foolishly bought to eat algae before I knew much about fish... stupid fish keeps trying to attach to my Sunset platys. :rant: Can a CAE kill other fish?

My tank is fairly heavily planted, medium/high light, 25 gal Eclipse, CO2 injection through a powerhead... occupied by tetras mostly. So what would be best? Every Pl*co that I have ever had has died after only a couple weeks. Otos don't seem to last either. Never have seen Siamese algae eaters at the LFS or Petsmart or Petco. And LFS is really stupid... lots of great looking tanks, but the owner is a d*ckwad.

Anyway... any ideas? Any really good online fish suppliers?

Obsidian
 
I've read accounts of CAEs bothering other fish to the point of really hurting them and stressing them out, so if it has become agressive I'd return it.

Which type of fish will do the best job depends on the type of algae
- SAEs are the best for hair-type algae (though they only eat new growth, the old stuff usually has to be removed by hand and once the fish are added they'll take over)
- Otos are great for brown algae (diatoms) which most other algae eaters won't eat, as well as the yummy soft green algaes.
- Bristlenoses and rubberlips will eat green algae.
- Snails will also put a dent in the algae - I have no algae eaters in my 10g other than 3 ramshorns, a pond snail and an apple snail (who doesn't really even bother with algae) and they do a great job cleaning the plant leaves.

If you've got lots of algae, there are other things that may help prevent it as well. I've learned from people here on AC that increasing the NO3, PO4 and CO2 can really help cut down the algae in a planted tank. If the plants have lots of light, CO2 and enough nutrients they'll thrive, and outcompete the algae. At first I was afraid to keep my levels too high, thinking I'd encourage algae to grow, but I followed the advice I was given and I've got very little algae in my 10g and none to speak of in the 65g.
 
Thanks... I probably will have to give away the CAE. There really isn't much algae to speak of in my tank, or at least nothing that I've noticed other than a few green or brown spots on the glass occasionally.

I think all my fish are kind of weird. The male platy is aggressive to the Serpae tetras. The serpae hate each other, the neons constantly try to either kill each other or spawn, the CAE goes after the platies. I have kind of resigned myself to having a dysfunctional fish family. ;)
 
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