[Empress Akitla]

Looking to get a cleaner or few for my 29 gal community tank with fancy guppies (and fry), platies, two cories, and a bristlenose pleco. The pleco is just tiny, I think I need a little more oomph for cleaning up some algae issues I've got going on that I'm combating with a 4-4-4 light schedule.

Ottos? Siamese algae eaters? Amanos? What's you're favorites?

 

[dukydaf]

All ?
Different algae eaters will prefer/are more effective against different algae types and none have an impact on BGA. What type of algae do you have ?

I find Amanos to be the hardiest and cover the widest range of algae types.

 

[Empress Akitla]

All ?
Different algae eaters will prefer/are more effective against different algae types and none have an impact on BGA or BBA. What type of algae do you have ?

I find Amanos to be the hardiest and cover the widest range of algae types.

Really soft, short, dark green algae on a few of my leaves that will not come off at all and gray near invisible stringy algae I've been picking out by hand at water changes. I would love to get some amanos, but have heard horror stories of them hunting fish at night that has me wary now. 😆

 

[benealing]

I keep a mix: Amano and cherry shrimp, SAE, Ottos, Flagfish, and Nerite snails. They all prefer different things. I only use them to clean up the little bits I don't like.

If I had a big algae problem, I would be focused on addressing the underlying reason for it (light and CO2 being the biggest factors).

Ben

 

[dukydaf]

Really soft, short, dark green algae on a few of my leaves that will not come off at all and gray near invisible stringy algae

Sounds like BBA and Staghorn. Otto will not eat it. Amano has liminted impact on healthy BBA.

SAE may help but might not fit the kind of aquarium you have.

If possible try spot dosing with Excel which works great on staghorn and BBA. Benealing is right, solving the root of the problem works hand in hand with active reduction and good plant growth.

 

[Empress Akitla]

Sounds like BBA and Staghorn. Otto will not eat it. Amano has liminted impact on healthy BBA.

SAE may help but might not fit the kind of aquarium you have.

If possible try spot dosing with Excel which works great on staghorn and BBA. Benealing is right, solving the root of the problem works hand in hand with active reduction and good plant growth.

That's why I've reduced my light time. The stringy algae has started disappearing, but the green fuzzy stuff is new. Maybe I'll get some Excel. I've got 30 watts of light on it for the 4-4-4 schedule and it gets a half dose of iron and potassium on Sundays with the water change. Not sure what is causing this new algae, now.

 

[newbieshrimpkeeper]

First get more cories-they prefer groups of 6 at least. For staghorn algae, Ive heard that amanos and red nosed shrimp have some effect on them.However, they arent true algae-they are cynobacteria, a type of bacteria that produce toxins so that stuff cant eat them-at least the marine ones do). They are tough to rid of. The green stuff is probably just algae so amano shrimps would be ideal.

 

[dukydaf]

Yes, cyanobacteria (BGA) can produce cyanotoxins which affects inverts and fish if in high enough conc. However staghorn is NOT a cyanobacteria. What we see is probably a sp. mix with Compsopogon sp. a likely candidate, just a type of freshwater red algae (same as BBA).

 

[LB79]

Amanos don't eat other fish. Some other shrimp will, but not amanos (at least, not the ones I had). They will eat dead fish if they find them, though.

 

[newbieshrimpkeeper]

Srry I meant BGA(blue green algae) as cynobacteria not staghorn. Should have said bluish green stuff instead of they .

 

[LucidA]

Red Ramshorn snails all the way!
Love these guys, super cheap and will clean up pretty much anything in my opinion. I also think they look nice

 

[n25philly]

Amanos don't eat other fish. Some other shrimp will, but not amanos (at least, not the ones I had). They will eat dead fish if they find them, though.

The other day I was feeding one of my tanks live blackworms and saw one of my amanos dive off the top of a plant to grab one of the worms. Never seen any act like that before. They have been totally peaceful to all my fish, even the fry when the fish have been breeding