Whats the wierd Growth?

The biggest mistake I ever made was getting chinese algae eaters. They are some of the most aggressive fish for territory. They beat other fish to death..even cichlids. They even eat sponge filters. They get spoiled on sponge filters fast.

There are products that will strip your tank of the nutrient algae thrives on. Usually aquarium plant fertilizers bring this problem on. Another way to combat this in a more chem friendly way is to get a uv sterilizer. Also look for "flying fox" algae eaters. Some lfs's try to sell other fish as these guys so do your research. Flying fox algae eaters like to be in groups of three or more and they are very efficient with no aggression what so ever.
 
terror spawnin said:
Also look for "flying fox" algae eaters. Some lfs's try to sell other fish as these guys so do your research. Flying fox algae eaters like to be in groups of three or more and they are very efficient with no aggression what so ever.
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flying foxes, to my knowledge, do not eat bba. they are also more aggressive than the sae. more colorful but i would stick with the true sae to solve the problem. my tank was covered in bba and staghorn algae, i added 12 of these guys and the problem was solved in a few weeks. i have a 125 gallon tank so they can grow to maximum size and swim freely.
 
SAE's pretty much only eat BBA when there is nothing else to eat, so I wouldn't count on some SAE's getting rid of all of it. Also, SAE's grow from 1" to 3" very quickly, and as mentioned they like to be in groups of at least 3, so unless you are looking to buy a 55g next month, I wouldn't get SAE's.

Flagfish---I've never owned, but I've never heard they are aggressive. However, along with the SAE, they will only eat BBA when nothing else is left.

Good options:

Cut off BBA affected areas of plants and throw them away.
Do a three day black out.
Start dosing Excel(ths will help you get around the co2 stuff for a while)
Reduce your photoperiod
Do 50% weekly water changes to reduce your nutrients.


All of those things in combination should help.
 
terror spawnin said:
There are products that will strip your tank of the nutrient algae thrives on. Usually aquarium plant fertilizers bring this problem on. Another way to combat this in a more chem friendly way is to get a uv sterilizer. Also look for "flying fox" algae eaters. Some lfs's try to sell other fish as these guys so do your research. Flying fox algae eaters like to be in groups of three or more and they are very efficient with no aggression what so ever.
Click to expand...

UV sterilizers only work on free floating algae, such as green water. They won't help BBA, hair, or any other kind of attached algae.

When looking for a "flying fox", best to look for the scientific name C. siamensis. The common name Flying Fox in most LFS actually refers to Epalzeorhynchus kalopterus, which will not help your algae issues. Any of the Epalzeorhynchus will not help. I've seen some stores sell SAE's under the common name "Siamese Flying Fox" and it was indeed C. siamensis, but most of the time when you see Flying Fox, it is not associated with C. siamensis.

Best to ask for the scientific name. Any good LFS can, if nothing else, look it up on their order sheet.
 
It looks kinda like Staghorn algae to me. http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/algae.html
http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_freshwater_algae.php
It's usually a bad idea to buy a fish just for an algae problem, unless it's a peacful, small fish like an oto that would work well with the current inhabitants. Mollies are also known to eat algae, though I forget which kind, meh.

ETA: just saw the stuff growing under the stuff that looks like Staghorn, that does look like Brush algae.
 
jmhart said:
SAE's pretty much only eat BBA when there is nothing else to eat, so I wouldn't count on some SAE's getting rid of all of it. Also, SAE's grow from 1" to 3" very quickly, and as mentioned they like to be in groups of at least 3, so unless you are looking to buy a 55g next month, I wouldn't get SAE's.

Flagfish---I've never owned, but I've never heard they are aggressive. However, along with the SAE, they will only eat BBA when nothing else is left.

Good options:

Cut off BBA affected areas of plants and throw them away.
Do a three day black out.
Start dosing Excel(ths will help you get around the co2 stuff for a while)
Reduce your photoperiod
Do 50% weekly water changes to reduce your nutrients.


All of those things in combination should help.
Click to expand...
i feed my sae's zucchini as well as flakefood every day. even with all that, they nibble on the bba and staghorn algae non stop. you dont want to starve them to eat it, and they do prefer flake food, but over time they will munch on it for fun. once again, you will need a much larger tank for them as they grow quite quickly.
my flagfish was very aggressive towards slower moving fish and i have heard of other accounts of this. it is best avoided by buying at least 3 of them so the aggression stays within their own kind. they do great jobs clearing off the bba and CAN be kept in a small group in your tank. i would go with them to start. just keep an eye on them that they dont attack your other fish.
cutting off leaves with bba never solved the problem for me. blackouts only stressed my fish and killed my plants. best thing is to just change your water parameters so that it wont be conducive for bba to grow (usually adding or subtracting certain nutrients of metals).
 
hmmm i dont know im going with a 5 hour light cycle this week. and a couple spaced out water changes. ill see how it goes the excel is finally starting to work on the hair algae.

the shrimp are constantly eating it ... the otto just sit s in one place on the glass ....... the cae sit s around looking fat .... and the sae s look like there eating the green algae sprouting on the log... maybe i should just use co2?
 
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