Best algae eater help (along with silly acrylic question)

[NBrucker]

Hi, everyone! I have had a low grade black beard algae and spot green algae issue that I've been keeping under control manually (lately removing hardscape & spot treating with H2O2 or Excel with mixed results) and feeding less/less light to try to dial in. I have a hard time keeping my nitrates > 5ppm, even with Easy Green (although I started low to half dose and still had to scale back, as the BBA just exploded when I increased to a half-dose). Mildly (trying to get to moderately) planted tank - mostly slow growing but added some faster species recently.

OK - the ACTUAL question is: I'm trying to decide if I should add any sort of algae eater (bristle nose pleco, panda garras, or Siamese Algae Eater are on my short list, although I think only the SAE eats BBA) but I can't find much about their mouth anatomy. The 100g acrylic tank was VERY spendy, and I already have some micro scratches on the side from an "acrylic safe" Seachem sponge the first week I got it - very sad. I don't know if any of those fish have a hard rasp that will create micro scratches over time. Tank info: 10 month old soft water tank, pH 7.6, dGH 2/GH 35 ppm, nitrates 5-10ppm, zero ammonia/nitrite. 5 angels, 3 Bolivian rams, sterbai corys, cherry barbs, rummynose & black neon tetras. Have amano shrimp in my other tank keeping that BBA under a little better control, but I heard they make great (and expensive) snacks for angels. Not interested in nerites as I dislike the look of the eggs. TIA! 

[Colu]

SAE will eat some  black bead algae  but will not get rid of it all together

Edited December 21, 2020 by Colu

[FrozenFins]

43 minutes ago, NBrucker said:

Hi, everyone! I have had a low grade black beard algae and spot green algae issue that I've been keeping under control manually (lately removing hardscape & spot treating with H2O2 or Excel with mixed results) and feeding less/less light to try to dial in. I have a hard time keeping my nitrates > 5ppm, even with Easy Green (although I started low to half dose and still had to scale back, as the BBA just exploded when I increased to a half-dose). Mildly (trying to get to moderately) planted tank - mostly slow growing but added some faster species recently.

OK - the ACTUAL question is: I'm trying to decide if I should add any sort of algae eater (bristle nose pleco, panda garras, or Siamese Algae Eater are on my short list, although I think only the SAE eats BBA) but I can't find much about their mouth anatomy. The 100g acrylic tank was VERY spendy, and I already have some micro scratches on the side from an "acrylic safe" Seachem sponge the first week I got it - very sad. I don't know if any of those fish have a hard rasp that will create micro scratches over time. Tank info: 10 month old soft water tank, pH 7.6, dGH 2/GH 35 ppm, nitrates 5-10ppm, zero ammonia/nitrite. 5 angels, 3 Bolivian rams, sterbai corys, cherry barbs, rummynose & black neon tetras. Have amano shrimp in my other tank keeping that BBA under a little better control, but I heard they make great (and expensive) snacks for angels. Not interested in nerites as I dislike the look of the eggs. TIA! 

I had a black beard algae problem and got a bristlenose pleco, he ate it all within a week. Amano Shrimp will help, as well as what you mentionded SAE will work too. Snails will work really well too, if you dont want a explosion of baby snails get nirite snails they will lay eggs, but the eggs will only hatch in brackish water.

[lefty o]

nerite's, and pandagarra's are my choice. SAE's seem to quit eating algae once they get some size on them. at least thats been my experience.

[Coronal Mass Ejection Carl]

I've had bristlenoses and acrylic aquariums for 15+ years and have never noticed any damage.

[NBrucker]

3 hours ago, Coronal Mass Ejection Carl said:

I've had bristlenoses and acrylic aquariums for 15+ years and have never noticed any damage.

Thanks! It's great to hear from someone with experience with both (I've asked this question a couple of times and looked everywhere on forums, but no one seems to answer this question directly). Also glad to hear from James Black that his bristlenose ate his BBA (I can't seem to find many answers to that, either). Many thanks!

[Nataku]

The best fish for eating BBA that I've  ever found are American Flagfish. They aren't a 'sucker' type fish at all. But they go after BBA like its some kind of caviar to them. They grab it and bite pieces off of covered leaves or decorations, grazing on it like famished cows until there is no more. Seriously, this is the stare of an underwater cow.... with mad cow disease.

Just bear in mind, they aren't nice fish.  At least not in my experience. They don't get big, perhaps 2" tops, but I recommend letting them take care of the BBA without any other fish in the tank. And then once the BBA is gone, put them in a species only tank or take them back to the store. Mine ate ever speck off BBA they found, and then went after the swordtails, the guppies, the dojo loaches, the kuhli loaches, the angelfish and the rainbow shark. Two tanks I put them in. Once the BBA was gone, they went after their tankmates. 

Maybe I just had terrible luck and brought home the crazy bunch of flagfish. But I'd  recommend caution with them if you decide to try them. Yes they eat BBA. But are they worth the trouble?

[Ken]

This kind of knowledge is what makes this forum great.

[Brandy]

53 minutes ago, Nataku said:

The best fish for eating BBA that I've  ever found are American Flagfish. They aren't a 'sucker' type fish at all. But they go after BBA like its some kind of caviar to them. They grab it and bite pieces off of covered leaves or decorations, grazing on it like famished cows until there is no more. Seriously, this is the stare of an underwater cow.... with mad cow disease.

Ever try them on Staghorn?

[PotatoFish]

I had a blackbeard algae (BBA) problem a little while ago, but I effectively starved the rosy barb in my tank by feeding just the goldfish food, and all that BBA got nommed quick, fast, and in a hurry. 

Rosy barbs are cool-looking fish and are highly underrated in my opinion. I was told they can be aggressive, but mine only did light chasing, and now that the goldfish is HUGE compared to it, it just makes way for Loppy Wigglebutt.

 Plecos have a tendency to nom softleaf plants. Otocinclus are cleaning POWERHOUSES, but you mentioned angelfish, and I am not sure whether the little Otos will get shredded. Others will know better; I have never kept angels. You should get a small group of Otos though if you keep them.

[NBrucker]

 I was looking at Otos (so cute!) but I didn't think they ate BBA?

 

 

 

[Ryan S.]

11 hours ago, Nataku said:

The best fish for eating BBA that I've  ever found are American Flagfish. They aren't a 'sucker' type fish at all. But they go after BBA like its some kind of caviar to them. They grab it and bite pieces off of covered leaves or decorations, grazing on it like famished cows until there is no more. Seriously, this is the stare of an underwater cow.... with mad cow disease.

Just bear in mind, they aren't nice fish.  At least not in my experience. They don't get big, perhaps 2" tops, but I recommend letting them take care of the BBA without any other fish in the tank. And then once the BBA is gone, put them in a species only tank or take them back to the store. Mine ate ever speck off BBA they found, and then went after the swordtails, the guppies, the dojo loaches, the kuhli loaches, the angelfish and the rainbow shark. Two tanks I put them in. Once the BBA was gone, they went after their tankmates. 

Maybe I just had terrible luck and brought home the crazy bunch of flagfish. But I'd  recommend caution with them if you decide to try them. Yes they eat BBA. But are they worth the trouble?

 

I'll add what I know from keeping/breeding them.  

They are the best BBA eater I have had.  They are a bit of a nuisance so you do need to be careful.  They also eat plants a bit. 

I currently keep them in a large holding tank with an apisto pair, cardinal tetras, bristlenose plecos, couple hillstream loaches, couple otos, a female guppy, and amano shrimp.  They don't bother anyone too much except my former male guppies but I'm starting to see them hassle the Cardinals. 

I have mine in a large group which has cured aggression among themselves but I have no experience keeping them as a single in a community aquarium.  

[Pete]

Second vote for Flagfish. I have a pair in my community tank that have absolutely decimated the BBA I had. They're awesome. Mine aren't aggressive to my platys, tetras and otos. The worst thing about them is they sometimes put a hole through the Val and Pogostemon leaves. 

[Kirsten]

I'm a huge evangelist for nerite snails for any algae growing on a hard surface. They'll leave your aquarium walls, decor, and equipment sparkling. But they're not swimmers like other snails and they can't easily right themselves if they fall and land upside down, so they don't seem to like taking the risk of going out on plant leaves. So I've had luck with giving algae-choked plants to shrimp and livebearers who clean them up right quick. Ramshorn snails are also usually small enough to go out on limbs for algae, but I don't think I've had any BBA yet to experiment with.

[Nataku]

13 hours ago, Brandy said:

Ever try them on Staghorn?

Yes they eat staghorn too! They prefer BBA (okay that just seems so wrong to type. 'Prefer' and 'BBA' should never go together) but once that's gone its onto the staghorn. Any hair type algae I've had they consumed to a point of completely wiping it out. 

As Ryan S. and Pete also said, they do occasionally put a hole in or rip the edge or tip of a leaf. In my case, I found they did so primarily from trying to rip a piece of BBA off a leaf. They grab a mouthful of it, and if it doesn't come right off, they will thrash their whole body to forcibly remove the BBA. Sometimes the plant's leaf is already weak enough that instead of getting the algae off the leaf, they just rip a hole in the leaf. 

But on the note of them going after other fish, again, maybe I just got the evil crazy batch. But they would chase other fish down and just like they'd bite off mouthfuls of BBA, they bit pieces out of my other fish's fins. Look at the dorsal and caudal of my kinked loach. Those semicircular chunks missing? That's the bite of a flagfish. 

@NBrucker Otos don't eat BBA. They eat diatoms. They'd be worth their weight in gold if they ate BBA too. Alas, we aren't so lucky.

[Expectorating_Aubergine]

Yeah, my flag fish live with guppies, and they beat them up all the time. Once the guppies started having fry, they focused on the fry. Having an over planted tank helps with aggressive flags, IME....