Otos in a (baby) goldfish tank?

[Epiphanaea]

My algae situation is out of control - I added a rubberlip pleco and was actually worried that there might not be enough algae for the pleco, a nerite snail, and a small clan of bladder snails. I mean, that’s a lot of things that eat algae, right? 
 

Hahaha no.  
 

The goldfish are babies, one about 3”, the other about 2 1/2.  
 

I have a 20g long cycling at the moment, and the plan would be for the otos to eventually end up in there with maybe some Borneo loaches - that tank, I would want to have all the algae.   
 

The goldfish tank is running about 72-74 degrees, so not too cold for otos right now - would be in winter, but the hopefully they will have stuffed their little faces by then, the pleco will have grown, the snails multiplied, and their services won’t be needed anymore.  I’d then move them upstairs to the 20l.

Good idea, bad idea?

[TheMosster]

quick question, can you add a picture of the algae?

Otos,snails, and some plecos will eat flat algaes, but they wont touch hair or brush algaes.If we could identify the algae, it might make fighting it easier.

 

[Lennie]

On 6/18/2023 at 6:11 PM, Epiphanaea said:

Good idea, bad idea?

bad idea.

 

Goldfish cannot live with a lot of fish and have very limited tank mate choices, as they tend to try eating everything. When they get bigger, likely they will try to eat otos. I would also avoid borneos. You need to try something they won't attempt to fit in their mouth and that enjoys living in cool water but lower flow. Borneos are tiny.

 

Also you need to somehow manage algae on your own in a goldfish tank to be fair. That is actually valid for all tanks. You can never depend on a plecos algae eating. You just should see them as a fish you keep that snacks on algae but requires a dedicated diet. I LOVE snails, but I don't think they are good algae eaters in general either. Also as @Themosster mentioned, you have flat algae eaters only.

Otos basically eat brown diatoms and soft green algae and that's it. You can easily clean both by yourself, considering you won't be having many plant options or decorations in a goldfish tank anyway. Just dim you light and shorten your lighting period if you can. Clean algae manually as best you can. Monitor water parameters and don't let nitrates to skyrocket.

Anything not being used by plants in a tank, will be used by algae, as long as the conditions allow

[Epiphanaea]

On 6/18/2023 at 3:08 PM, Lennie said:

You can easily clean both by yourself, considering you won't be having many plant options or decorations in a goldfish tank anyway.

Actually. . . 

[TheMosster]

On 6/18/2023 at 4:18 PM, Epiphanaea said:

Actually. . . 

yeah, that looks like mostly hair algae, those algae eaters you have wont really help you with those.

This might be helpful for you:

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/hair-algae?_pos=3&_sid=50a10f52b&_ss=r

. I mean in my opinion the algae on the wood looks really cool, but i can see the bottom stuff not being too attractive.

[Epiphanaea]

I’m fine with it on the wood and the gravel, the issue is it growing all over the plants.  The snails do eat it off the plants a little, but believe it or not the issue I have is that my bladder snails aren’t breeding fast enough for the population to increase despite predation from the goldfish.  I think the pleco is also eating the eggs.

 

 

[Lennie]

On 6/18/2023 at 11:18 PM, Epiphanaea said:

Actually. . . 

What I mean is, usually for fancy goldfish, they are not safe. They usually tend to have swimming problems and always potentiall may hurt themself. They may even choke on plants, or get stuck between a driftwood and die.

Goldfish are knows to eat most plants. There is a reason why all popular goldfish people keep their bare bottom or with sand but without any decoration and plants.  Sand is usually fine. But decorations, not really.

If I were you, I would remove the plants and dip them with RR method. then, I would vac and try to get the algae as best as I can. And boil the wood to kill all the algae on it. Scrape all the glass. Basically manually remove or treat everything. 

Dim the light, cut back on ferts if you use any in general. Shorten your lighting period. Ideally black out the tank for a couple days. You have only a few plants for that tank size. They really don't need a lot. I keep my lights on for 6 hours and all my tanks do perfectly fine with it. 7hours, I start seeing algae.

And majority of your algae issue is hair algae, and your potential clean up crew members won't eat any of those. Flagfish, rosy barbs, SAE, amano shrimp are the common options that help with it.

 

[TheMosster]

On 6/18/2023 at 4:34 PM, Epiphanaea said:

I’m fine with it on the wood and the gravel, the issue is it growing all over the plants.  The snails do eat it off the plants a little, but believe it or not the issue I have is that my bladder snails aren’t breeding fast enough for the population to increase despite predation from the goldfish.  I think the pleco is also eating the eggs.

Ah, that makes some sense.

your pleco probably is not touching the snail eggs, most fish generally ignore small snail eggs.

A.are you feeding your bladder snails, thats how you get a lot of them fast and

B. Have you checked your tank at night, many of the small snails are more active at dark, you may see more of them then.

Edited June 18 by Themosster

[Flumpweesel]

I have successfully kept Garra rufa with goldfish, but they are unlikely to touch hair algae but do eat the algae you get on the glass

[Epiphanaea]

On 6/18/2023 at 4:43 PM, Themosster said:

A.are you feeding your bladder snails, thats how you get a lot of them fast

What would you feed bladder snails besides plants and algae?  So, that’s a no, I didn’t know they needed additional food in a planted tank.

*Something* is eating the snail eggs -  they’re disappearing.  It may not be intentional, they tend to lay them on the glass.  

I think I may need to choose quicker-growing plants, and plant them carpet-style from the start rather than planting a plug here and a plug there and hoping they’ll fill in.  So far the only thing that’s grown faster than the algae is water sprite.  
 

 

[TheMosster]

On 6/18/2023 at 7:09 PM, Epiphanaea said:

What would you feed bladder snails besides plants and algae?  So, that’s a no, I didn’t know they needed additional food in a planted tank.

they dont, and thats how people reduce their populations, but if you want yours to explode, you may want to feed it specially.

Edited June 18 by TheMosster