# small fish that eats hair algae?



## reignOfFred (Jun 7, 2010)

hi all

so i have flagfish in a different tabk and i know they can clean my other tank of the hair algae it is growing. 

the problem is this other tank is full of very small life - fish like spotted rasbora, chrystal shrimp, and pygmy gourami, and im worried about the much bigger flag fish causing them issues.

any thoughts or ideas floating around? my understanding is that oto cats will not help.


----------



## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

oto cats won't eat hair algae. What size tank is this? It would be best to figure out why you are gettign hair algae. I use amano shrimp to eat hair algae, but they can occasionally be a little aggressive to other dwarf shrimp so it would depend on your tank size.


----------



## reignOfFred (Jun 7, 2010)

It's a standard 29 gallon and I can't figure out what's going on. Fairly densly planted, It has 48 w of T5HO lighting over it, with about 24" from the light to the substrate. It is co2 injected, and the drop in pH and the drop checker together are enough to assure me levels can't be bad. I have steadily increased fertilizers, and the algae seems to keep growing at about the same pace regardless - not unbearably fast, but fast enough to concern me.

My chrystal shrimp were much too expensive to risk anything eating them, so amano shrimp are a no-go also. I have a feeling I'm going to have to do a big old tank scrub... sigh :-(


----------



## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

If it's green hair algae you're probably extending your photoperiod for far too long. Tone it down and see what happens.


----------



## sepehr (Oct 6, 2010)

Juvenile SAE will eat hair algae.


----------



## boringname (Nov 11, 2010)

My flagfish leaves the ghost shrimp alone, but those are bigger than crystal shrimp. When he does chase the other fish he never catches them due to being comically slow.


----------



## reignOfFred (Jun 7, 2010)

thanks guys. my light is on for 10 hrs. is just 8 enough?

i dont believe in the practice of buying fish we dont want or cant realistically keep in order to solve a problem. if i can find a worthy fish or creature it would need to be able to stay permanently.

thats interesting boring, even though i want to fix the problem at the source, perhaps i will try a female flag and keep a close eye on her.


----------



## bgssamson (Mar 16, 2004)

If you can get your hands on Stiphodon genus (I like the Stiphodon percnopterygionus!) I heard that they are good in eating hair algae. They are small but not sure if they will eat your crs babies. 

Maybe Rachel (MsJinkzd) can get it for you and me! 

-Brian


----------



## Bettatail (Feb 12, 2009)

you will need a combination of methods to clean the hair algae.
a large water change and no fert for a couple month, hand pull if possible, and get a sae, not crossceichelus langei, but a crossceichelus atrilimes, 2+ inch size.
if the hair algae is between the plants(especially in java moss) near the surface of the water, than you have to lower your light, or put the java moss in deeper water, under some shade is even better.

I had the hair aglae problem in my tank before, the several big clumps of java moss near the surface was tangled with hair algae, I put the java moss in deeper water and under the shade of african fern, and I had a SAE(crossocheilus atrilimes) that was longer than 2+ inch at the time, it took out the hair algae slowly, a fist size clump java moss took about two month to be hair algae free. 
SAE(crossocheilus atrilimes) smaller than 2+ don't eat hair algae, and SAE(crossocheilus langei) eat hair algae when grow into adult size.

hopefully this help, and it takes time to control the hair algae if hand pull can not solve the problem immediately.


----------



## reignOfFred (Jun 7, 2010)

lol bgssampson you have me intrigued wih those fish regardless of whether they eat algae


----------



## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

reignOfFred said:


> lol bgssampson you have me intrigued wih those fish regardless of whether they eat algae


Ditto!


----------



## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

stiphodons are super cool, but have a few specialized needs. They like super oxygen rich water and are more biofilm and flat algae grazers rather than hair algae. Super cool fish all the same, though difficult to get reliably through import lists (atl east the really nicely colored ones)


----------

