# Fish or Shrimp that have an appetite for hair (staghorn) algae?



## fluvaledge (Jan 4, 2013)

Can anyone recommend any shrimp / fish suitable for a 23l 6G that will readily eat hair algae?


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## Kinection (Dec 1, 2012)

Been wondering the same thing, got it on my moss.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

Some people say Amanos will eat it, but it is better to just pull it out and limit your nutrients in the tank.


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## CoffeeLove (Oct 31, 2012)

Amanos ate all mine once. It will be one of the last things they eat though.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2


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## Aquatic Delight (Mar 2, 2012)

honestly you are better off treating the cause than trying purchase stock to eat it.

what i learned from battling it in one of my tanks is that staghorn grows when the nitrates are high and there is not alot of water circulation.


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## fluvaledge (Jan 4, 2013)

Thanks, I'm a little baffled by mine - nitrates test at almost 0. Good circulation and CO2 injection. 8 gr light cycle. My Co2 pressurised system isn't very well regulated however and fluctuates a bit. The needle valve is very hard to set in a position that is maintained - after a few hrs it either speeds up it slows down of it's own accord. Could the fluctuating CO2 be a problem? And should I invest in a better system?


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## abc (May 18, 2004)

American flag fish apparently eat hair algae, including stag. But they are an aggressive fish and will attack your shrimp.

Here's a link with a further description: 

http://www.azgardens.com/p-408-algae-eating-adult-american-flag-fish.aspx


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## abc (May 18, 2004)

also, if you take a syringe/dropper, and fill it with H202 (hydrogen peroxide), and apply directly to hair algae, it will turn it reddish in color and eventually it dies off. I don't have a hair algae problem in my tanks but occasionaly it starts to grow around the filter outlet. I take my dropper and apply H202 directly and it kills it off in a couple of days, plus the red hue on the algae looks neat!


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## m00se (Jan 8, 2011)

Yea I would be reluctant to put flag fish in with shrimp. They do a terrific job on algae including BBA. They do leave snails alone. However, shrimp move, and flags seem to trigger on movement instinctively. They're very much like a wild bass or perch. I had 6 juveniles in a 15 gallon tank with one CRS female who managed to survive just fine with them until I changed the sponge filter for an oversized (for this tank) Aquaclear. I'm not sure what did her in - the massive water movement or an opportunity the fish took advantage of. 

Also, this old saw about lack of this or not stable enough that...you know. I can show you a spraybar that distributes the CO2 saturated water out of my reactor with BBA just sloughing off of it. Here is a good article about balancing, and some things to consider. There's another forum where there is active discussion about this topic, and the back and forth is well, illuminating to say the least.

http://buddendo.home.xs4all.nl/aquarium/redfield_eng.htm


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