What fish eat this hair algae?

Well for one thing there are many different types of algae that all look similar and often confused, hair, thread, even clado, and a couple more.

I would never assume a fish will completely fix your problem. They may or may not help. Thats all I would assume. Usually you have to treat the source of the problem, but sometimes these things get introduced and dont really have much to do with your tank. In which case eliminating it and it might not come back, but thats th4e exception not the rule.

I had a form of thread algae, similar to what is in the pic and a combination of buying a pair of flag fish and spot treating with hydrogen peroxide seems to have eliminated it. CAE's and SAE's wouldnt touch it. Perhaps shome shrimp might not sure.
 
A Flag fish will probably take care of the algae. I have a pair of them in my 40 gallon and have never had any visable algae to speak of. I also had a flag in my 20 gallon and never had an algae problem untill I removed him. Then suddenly the tank was infested with beard algae.
If you do go with a Flag fish get a female. They are a bit smaller and less prone to aggression. But they may eat small fish fry along with the algae.
 
I had cherry barbs eat algae that looked like the one in your picture.

Of course, your mileage will vary.

I second ethe opinion that you should remove as much algae as you can, and try to address the problem with the water parameters.

Hope that helps.
 
it's funny, my cherry barbs seem to nibble at it too, but not enough to control it. It grows like wildfire.

also to resond to an earlier comment: I've had no luck with the toothbrush method, I find it just breaks the algae up, but does not help to remove it

I'd love to find a way to destroy it all in one blast without killing my shrimp. I have almost an entire 10 gallon floor of HC, 2" thick, and would love to be able to use it in other tanks, and maybe sell some... it's a TON of HC... but it has quite a bit of hair or thread algae on it, which I think started out on the dwarf swords.
 
There are many plants that can be sensitive to Excel. Vals would probably be one of the more common ones. Some havent had issues with standard doses after a bit of initial die off. It seemed to have wiped out my jungle vals. I've switched to spot treating with H2O2. But for algae, they both have similar affects for spot treating, but H2O2 is a lot cheaper.
 
GreenTerr0 said:
i believe there called chinease simaese algae eaters.. they especially work well with the hair algae since they have teeth and they dont damage plants.... btw lucas im from toronto alsoooo where do u buy your fish from.... about an hour ago i was at the big als on steeles in thornhill lol.
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No, NEVER buy Chinese Siamese Algae Eater(CAE) to control algae. CAEs become very aggressive as they get older and also do not eat much algae. They will most likely kill your other peaceful fish in the tank

What you want is True Siamese Algae Eater (True SAE, Crossocheilus Siamensis). They do eat many different types of algae and are not aggressive at all.

This website will show you how to identify the true sae:

http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/cyprinid.html

As others have said, it's far better to find the root cause of the algae. It's really not that difficult: 1)excessive light or 2)excessive nutrient/feeding

I dont use excel, more trouble than they worth. If you have a planted tank, just go with normal co2 injection.
 
gagaliya said:
As others have said, it's far better to find the root cause of the algae. It's really not that difficult: 1)excessive light or 2)excessive nutrient/feeding
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This reminded me. The real problem I was having with my algae was high levels of ambient light in the room. I'm a night owl and frequently have the lights on in the tank room (compact flourescents, daylight spectrum) until 4:00 AM. The tank lights turned off at midnight, but the room lights were strong. I covered the tank with a towel when the lights went out, and the algae cleared up.
 
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