Algae help

[OscarFan]

Does anyone know of any algae eaters that dont get too big. 3-4 inches tops

[Fishalicious]

Shrimp..Snails...oto cats... are all good canditates as they are smaller you can get more of them so they end up eating more algae than 1 fish alone ;) Mollies sure like to eat Algae also... to my amazement even more than oto cats...

[gm72]

I am going to interject a question here--do mollies eat hair algae and/or damage plants?

[Fishalicious]

A well fed Molly won't .. a hungry Molly will :ezpi_wink1: :ezpi_wink1: They will not harm your plants...
Nothing beats a Siamese Algae Eater at hair algae though...

[gm72]

So, read: don't feed the molly and see if it will help clear out the hair algae. Might have to give that a try.

[Fishalicious]

Definately... if you cut down their food they will eat hair algae

What kind of Algae do you have Oscarfan?

Even better though is to find the cause of the algae rather than bring more fish in to get rid of it...

[OscarFan]

I dont know the kind but its a dark green. I head a common plecosamuus.But he got too big so I moved him to my 55.

[OscarFan]

What kind of shrimp eat algae

[Fishalicious]

All algae eaters eat the type of algae you have...

All shrimp eat algae but Caridina japonica are the fastest eaters of algae

[KcEE]

Oto cats are really good cleaners.........

[gbbudd]

Caridina japonica / or better known as amano shrimp. i agree no planted tank could be complete without them or some kind of shrimp .

[Bobo the Clown Loach]

If you can find them, I highly recommend rubber-lipped plecos, also known as bull lip or bull nose plecos. I have 2 in my 36 gal live plant setup in addition to 1 siamese algae eater. They both do a fine job! I also have some mollies and lyretails pitching in with the algae fight.