# A fish that eats HAIR ALGAE?



## gbhil

http://www.azgardens.com/algae_eating_fish.php

Look into the Florida Flagfish listed near the bottom of the page.


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## Wasserpest

Amano shrimps are great for that, unless you have fish that consider them snacks. Also Ghost shrimps will eat hair algae, but they wouldn't be able to eradicate a full blown algae explosion.


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## fishcrazee

Cherries are great at destroying all my hair algae. They seem to really like it. I personally think they do a better job than my ghost shrimp.


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## BlueRam

One of my new favorite fish are the Goodeid in particular Ameca splendens which is reported to eat algae including BGA!


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## alphacat

As far as Flagfish go, just make sure you're not planning on breeding shrimp:

per http://www.azgardens.com/algae_eating_fish.php:

"Flagfish are ideal for consuming Brown, Black Beard Algae, Thread Algae, Hair/String Algae, and Blanketweed. Good with most fish except bettas or small frilly-finned fish as they will pick on them. They will do great with larger-sized fish, and other fish of same size. They are not interested in eating snails, but they will eat small shrimp."


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## Y0uH0

hmm,my local LFS had introduced me to using BLACK MOLLIES and i must say they have proved to be very useful in combatting hair algae..perhaps you can give it a try


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## Georgiadawgger

Y0uH0 said:


> hmm,my local LFS had introduced me to using BLACK MOLLIES and i must say they have proved to be very useful in combatting hair algae..perhaps you can give it a try


Finally, someone suggested those ugly little buggers! They are pretty darn good at ripping hair algae off...and gentle enough not to harm any of the plants in the process. BUT, they need to be hungry...you can't feed them regularly (as well as pretty much any algae eater) or they'll forget about algae and just wait for flakes or pellets.


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## Y0uH0

Haha,well, they are round and fat alright but somehow,alot of people find them cute, especially the girls. Yeah,i agree that u musn't feed them regularly cause fish are as smart as humans in this area,give them something nice to eat and they will forget about eating lousy food..hehe


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## mecgeorgeneo

my SAE eats everything in sight keeping my tank algae free.


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## Mori

In an untended tank, I grew a huge ball of hair algae that bound together some floating java ferns. A danio got snared in the ball so I took it out and put it in an unplanted tank with some fish. I don't know who ate it, but it was gone in a day, and I keep those fish very well fed. Main suspects are _Helostoma temmincki _(kissing gourami). It could have been my plecos, _L. pardalis_, but it doesn't seem their style.

I wish I could fit those gouramis in my messy planted tank. It needs a good cleaning.


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## Evergreen

I'm going out today and pick up three more pairs of black mollies! The two in my tank now look like they are going to explode at any moment! I don't feed the tank. Figure I'll just throw them in my sons tank once mine is well established.

Go molly go!

Keith


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## endparenthesis

My cherries never touched my hair algae...


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## csf

I try to keep snails, SAEs, barbs, ottos/plecos and some livebearers in any of my tanks.

The SAEs eat most of the stuff, the barbs tear at the horsehair type algaes and the livebearers tend to help out as well. The snails, ottos and plecos will get the green dust type algaes.

Rosy, cherry and gold barbs are most often mentioned. Rosies get bigger than the others and seem to be able to rip up larger strands. I keep platies instead of mollies. Mollies are considered the best with platies better than guppies.


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## esarkipato

I'd just like to caution against flagfish. Unless you have a med-high aggressive tank, they will nip many'a fin.

Rosy barbs have worked well for me.


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