# Best Algae eating fish for PT



## sevenrider860 (Dec 16, 2006)

Maybe not the "best" algae eating fish... I have found that both my Dwarf Gourami (Colisa lalia) and Black Molly (Poecilia latipinna) spend a great deal of time eating the hair algae. The color of my algae is more green than brown, so I am sure your algae eating mileage will vary.

I have heard that the Otocinclus Algae Eater (Otocinclus affinis) is a good choice for an algae eater, but I cannot confirm that from my experience.

Brian


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## daFrimpster (Mar 7, 2005)

Otocinclus are definitely my favorite. I have oto's in several tanks.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

For spotty brown algae, Otos do a good job. Shrimps are champs when it comes to hair algae. Amano shrimps, and/or lots of Cherries keep tanks pretty clean.


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## Burks (May 21, 2006)

daFrimpster said:


> Otocinclus are definitely my favorite. I have oto's in several tanks.


Ditto. They do an awesome job and look good to boot.

Shrimp also do a wonderful job. RCS are cheap and easy to breed.


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## jasonp (Dec 18, 2006)

*Ok*

Thanks for the reply's guys. I went ahead and picked up 10+ Cherry Shrimp off of Ebay since all the LFS's didn't have any. If these guys are as good as everyone says, maybe I can just keep the glass clean with a pad scraper and let the RCS do the rest. If the glass gets too tough, maybe I'll look into a dwarf pleco or the oto. My friend claims that the oto's have a bad habit of going after fish slime (take mates). Have yall heard of this? Lastly, are the RCS hard to breed? It'd be interesting to get a few little ones from the ones I ordered. roud: 
Thanks for all the help..Jason


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## George Willms (Jul 25, 2003)

I"ve never seen an oto go after fish slime coats. The chinese algae eaters are notorious for doing this though...

RCS usually breed pretty prolifically. Assuming that nothing eats them you should have a ton of them in no time!


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## ianmoede (Oct 1, 2004)

Yeah your oto friend tellin you eat slime is on crack. hes thinking about chinese algae eaters.


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## ianmoede (Oct 1, 2004)

Wow, terrible grammar. You get the drift.


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## jasonp (Dec 18, 2006)

*Excellent!*



George Willms said:


> I"ve never seen an oto go after fish slime coats. The chinese algae eaters are notorious for doing this though...
> 
> RCS usually breed pretty prolifically. Assuming that nothing eats them you should have a ton of them in no time!


Good deal. Lookin forward to getting them then. I guess I'll look into getting an Oto this weekend too.


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## jasonp (Dec 18, 2006)

*good.*



ianmoede said:


> Yeah your oto friend tellin you eat slime is on crack. hes thinking about chinese algae eaters.


I guess I'll see if I can find some this weekend in San Antonio at the LFS's. I was out this past weekend near the Frio River doing some other things and picked up another plant in a cup. This one looks like a small lilly pad (probably is) Anyway, those other plants took off and one doubled in size over the weekend. I'll go out this weekend too and see if I can bag you a few plants. If I can, I'll email you and get an addy to send'em to. I'll try and get a picture of the other plant tomarrow and post it. 
Thanks again,
Jason


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## daFrimpster (Mar 7, 2005)

Oto's seem to do better if you have more than one. I have 3in my 10gal and about 8 of them in my 55g. Also note that sometimes you will lose Oto's a few days after you get them. I believe this is more related to stress they experienced prior to you getting them. So don't beat yourself up too bad if you lose a couple of them. Healthy Oto's will have round little bellies and eat (and poop) pretty much constantly.


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## jasonp (Dec 18, 2006)

*Here's the other one*

Here's the other (new) plant that I was referring to:








Wild collected on a tributary to the Frio River. I'm hoping it's not just small lilly pads, they get kinda big. The "leaves" are about .5 inches across. and all growing from the same root. There were hundreds of them growing in the same spot but ALL the same size. So no Big lilly pads. Any ideas? 
Jason
Here's the link just in case. I'll post later in the plant forum too.


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

lately, I've been really impressed with my Ramhorn snails.
my Otto's got lazy and just eat the crap on my inlet screen.
my SAE's are bored and hyper as my algae is low
my Flag's pick at fine roots, thus ruin my foreground
my Amano's die too easily after a 50% water change
my Nerite's lay too many useless white eggs
my Farlowella just does a really great stick imitation
my Pleco's useless as I don't have any driftwood
but my Ramhorn's just keep going, and going, and going....











red claw crabs do a good job eating dead plant debris.
in this photo one is eating a TUMS® for it's calcium.


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## George Willms (Jul 25, 2003)

jasonp, that plant looks like it could be a hydrocotyle species. vulgaris possibly, there is another that looks simialr, but I can't remember the name right now... verticillata maybe?


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## aelysa (Oct 20, 2006)

I have to say, the best thing in my tanks are the pond snails when it comes to algae. The only ones they don't work on is brown algae. Otherwise they devour everything else (algae wise) and leave the plants alone.


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## jasonp (Dec 18, 2006)

*well*



George Willms said:


> jasonp, that plant looks like it could be a hydrocotyle species. vulgaris possibly, there is another that looks simialr, but I can't remember the name right now... verticillata maybe?


well, I looked it up and I think you're right. perhaps maybe a Hydrocotyle umbellata based upon range? It does look allot like verticillata though too. Anyone ever use these as submerged Aquarium plants because thats what these guys are right now :icon_wink . When I found them they were in about 8 inches of water and the leaves were about 2 inches under the surface.


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## George Willms (Jul 25, 2003)

I've seen them used both submerged in the substrate and on top of the tank growing out of the water.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

Deff a Hydrocotyle species. those particular ones make a wonderfull ground cover accent. 
as for algae eating fish it depends on the the type. some will eat some types of alage and others well other. 
examples 
Oto's are a great general cleaner for most algaes tho I have never seen my otos even touch hair algae. They do like to be in groups and are somewhat sensitive. when picking them out look for nice fat ones. And when acclimating give them extra time and slowly mix in tank water to their floating bag. so when they hit the new water they don't go into shock. 
Siamese Algae eaters however are said to feast on hair algae. however don't do much IMO aganst spot and algae stuck to the glass. 
I would not suggest getting a Chinese algae eater to deal with any types of alage because they are a trade off. mine will not allow shrimp to live in the tank and likes to harrass other fish. but they do a decent gob with mot algaes. 
snails... well this could be good or bad. I have 3 types of snails in my tank. 
Ram's they don't seem to be a huge problem spawning wise or plant eating.
Ponds- breed like rabbits. and will quickly infest if something is not there to curb their populations ( I think my CAE and tetras are keeping them in check)
Trumpet snails- Infestation. My problem with trumpets is for somereason they want to get into my filter. I am allways pulling them out of the intakes and when I break down the filter for cleaning they are all in it. This bothers me for obvious reasons. however they seem to be the most effective as far as cleaning. they do reproduce like crazy tho since they are asexual and clone rather then breed and they have the tendancy to inadvertantly uproot shallow rooted plants like dwarf hairgrass. 
Plecos- Ugh. they produce more waste then they do clean. and the larger they get the less active they tend to be. commons are highly discouraged. smaller species are ok tho. But be weary of them as they can also get aggressive and teritorial. My pleco in my 75 likes to square off aganst my flowerhorn.

Best bet is probably a team of Otos. for you're 30 gal I would say start with 5-10.


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

Blacksunshine said:


> Trumpet snails- Infestation. My problem with trumpets is for somereason they want to get into my filter. I am allways pulling them out of the intakes and when I break down the filter for cleaning they are all in it. This bothers me for obvious reasons. however they seem to be the most effective as far as cleaning. they do reproduce like crazy tho since they are asexual and clone rather then breed and they have the tendancy to inadvertantly uproot shallow rooted plants like dwarf hairgrass.


I feel what Black writes rings true if you let your Trumpet population get out of hand. I only have a few dozen in my 29gal and like having them around very much as they eat any left over food, excess gravel mulm and plant debris, and are thought to help get more water bourne ferts and gas exchange to your plant roots. many Trumpets can potentially disturb foreground plants, but fortunately I have not suffered from this. As for getting in your filter, that may more to do with the screen type and location of your filter inlet as I have not had this problem yet either. Trumpet population is easy to control by manually removing them from the glass a few hours after lights out. while Trumpets may not be algae eaters, they may indirectly help control algae by enabling your tanks biological fertilizer cycle to work more efficiently.

My minimum algae&debris cleaning team for a new 30gal would be;
-one SAE
-three Ottos
-dozen Trumpets
-dozen Ramhorns
however I would wait a few weeks for any new tank to cycle before adding these.
I would not bother with loaches or corys; the snails and ottos will do a much better job on debris.


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## cherokeetestpilot (Dec 8, 2006)

I have three oto's in my 10g. When I put them in there was an awful lot of algae on the glass and leaves even though it was a fairly new tank. I thought I was going to have to use the scraper but decided to give these little guys a shot at it since I like them and was putting them in anyway. Well...2 days later and I dare you to find any algae on my glass or bigger leafed plants....these guys are awsome.


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## jasonp (Dec 18, 2006)

*Thanks*



Blacksunshine said:


> Deff a Hydrocotyle species. those particular ones make a wonderfull ground cover accent.
> as for algae eating fish it depends on the the type. some will eat some types of alage and others well other.
> examples
> Oto's are a great general cleaner for most algaes tho I have never seen my otos even touch hair algae. They do like to be in groups and are somewhat sensitive. when picking them out look for nice fat ones. And when acclimating give them extra time and slowly mix in tank water to their floating bag. so when they hit the new water they don't go into shock.
> ...


Lots of good info guys, thanks so much for the help! I may just throw a snail in there too along with the Shrimp if I can find some at my LFS.
Jason


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## jasonp (Dec 18, 2006)

*also*



Blacksunshine said:


> Deff a Hydrocotyle species. those particular ones make a wonderfull ground cover accent.
> as for algae eating fish it depends on the the type. some will eat some types of alage and others well other.
> examples
> Oto's are a great general cleaner for most algaes tho I have never seen my otos even touch hair algae. They do like to be in groups and are somewhat sensitive. when picking them out look for nice fat ones. And when acclimating give them extra time and slowly mix in tank water to their floating bag. so when they hit the new water they don't go into shock.
> ...


How about the "Mystery Snails" that they are selling on ebay that says "will not harm living plants, only dead plant tissue and algae"? 
Jason


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## spypet (Sep 15, 2006)

jasonp said:


> How about the "Mystery Snails" that they are selling on ebay that says "will not harm living plants, only dead plant tissue and algae"?
> Jason


Mystery Snail is not a specific type of snail, it's a snail the seller has no idea what it is, that's why it's a "mystery", so I would not buy it. Apple snails that are often mislabeled as Mystery Snails may be alright for planted tanks, but IMHO you are far better off investing in Ramshorn snails which unfortunately most LPS are too misinformed to sell.


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## jasonp (Dec 18, 2006)

*found one...*



sevenrider860 said:


> Maybe not the "best" algae eating fish... I have found that both my Dwarf Gourami (Colisa lalia) and Black Molly (Poecilia latipinna) spend a great deal of time eating the hair algae. The color of my algae is more green than brown, so I am sure your algae eating mileage will vary.
> 
> I have heard that the Otocinclus Algae Eater (Otocinclus affinis) is a good choice for an algae eater, but I cannot confirm that from my experience.
> 
> Brian


This past weekend when we went plant collecting, my daughter's friend caught a (what looks like) silver molly out of the river. I remembered your reccomendation. Well to make a long story short, I threw it in the tank and MAN can that little guy munch on algae! Not much to look at but I like it. He completely cleaned one of my holey rocks of algae today. 
Jason


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