Do rosy barbs really eat hair algae?

[mollybabes]

I have a horrible infestation of hair algae and I read in a magazine that rosy barbs eat it like mad. I haven't been able to find any confirmation anywhere on the internet. Can anyone confirm, ir suggest any other fish that will get rid of it quickly?

Thanks!!!

 

[Winnie]

I too have an infestation of "brush" algae in my 20-gallon planted tank and it's irritating the crap out of me. Since I haven't seen anyone reply to you, I went off in search of some on-line articles and learned that the real name of this stuff is red algae, also known as beard algae, brush algae and hair algae.
If you do a Google search, you'll probably find the same articles I did. http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/
Anyway, no mention of barbs anywhere. Apparently the ONLY fish said to eat this ugly stuff is the Siamese Algae Eater, not to be confused with the Chinese Algae Eater or Flying Fox.
I'm going to keep my eye out for these hard to find fish and in the meantime, try to slowly starve the algae of its nutrients by not putting any plant food in the water and adding some more plants.

 

[anonapersona]

hair yes, red, not really

If the hair algae you have is the black, slightly curly, looks a lot like nasty armpit hair then the rosy barbs will indeed eat this, happily, vigorously, in fact. It took a pair of rosy barbs about 2 hours to clean up 90% of the hair algae in my tank, by the next day I think it was all gone.

I saw them working on the red algae (not red in my tank but a strange bluegreen except when it is bleached it turns pink as it dies) but I cannot say they ever made a dent in that stuff. The Amano shrimp do more on that, and keeping the CO2 levels up by dropping the HOB filter and going with a canister has slowly helped, but still it hangs on.

So, yes on the hair algae, but no for the red algae.

Note that they will nip at plants, even the sorts that people claim that fish don't eat, like java fern and anubias nana. They've nipped at apongeton ulvaceus, and melon swords, really I don't think there is anything they won't nip at. The babies are worse than the parents for some reason. It is the fresh growth that is most at risk. So, don't get too many of these guys, one may be enough.

And they are PIGS, they will bully the cory out of his food. I'm amazed they haven't eaten the Amano shrimp yet, they cleaned out the ghost shrimp in minutes.