Platy Algae Eating Experiment

[GoofyGarra]

So in my tank i have lots of staghorn algae which is suboptimal. I also have a lot of platies in the tank. I know my platies have the right mouthes to pick at or eat hair-type algaes like staghorn, and i want to train them to eat the algae, or at least pick it off the plants so it can be easily removed. Im essentially borrowing the method for transitioning fish from live food to prepared foods, but instead of prepared foods, i want to train the fish onto algae.

the procedure:

I have prepped a small bowl and added a small piece of staghorn algae. I have then crushed up foods the platies like, like Repashy and easy fry food into the water. I am now letting this all soak for around 20-30minutes to try and soak some of the prepared foods into the algae. After this period i will pour the bowl into the tank. Im guessing the algae will be ignored and the food will be eaten. However over the course of several weeks i plan to decrease the amount of food, and increase the amount of algae and see if i can get the platies to become more interested in the algae.

Honestly i might have an idea that wont work if my method is wrong or if the kind of algae im using is the wrong kind.

Im not usually very good at continuing long experiments like this, but im going to try my best, and hopefully be able to update this thread with results (good or bad).

the water is dirty from crushed up repashy cubes.

 

Edit: New idea, maybe setting the algae into repashy...

Edited November 24, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[GoofyGarra]

On 11/24/2023 at 11:16 PM, Pepere said:

None of this is to say your experiment isnt interesting or worthwhile.  And I am curious to hear your results….

to be honest im personally skeptical. Moreso that ill be able to keep up the experiment long term. I also realized that the staghorn algae would  provide good hiding spots for platy fry, so it might be to my favor not to continue the testing.