algae eater?

[j-man the skater-man]

i have a real brown algae problem and the cheapest most intertaining way to fix it that i have been informed about is getting a algae eating fish or invert

i was planning to get cherry shrimp but havent found any yet so i was wondering what the most active, and best algae eating fish is???

[Damon]

What size tank and what tank inhabitants?

[j-man the skater-man]

the tank is a 29 gallon and i have 3 corys in it but am also dead set to put neon tetras and dwarf gourimaia(forgive me for my butchering of the name)

[fishfreaks]

a bushynose pleco would do well in a 29 gallon. they are great algae eaters.

[shev]

Originally Posted by j-man the skater-man dwarf gourimaia(forgive me for my butchering of the name)

gouramis, but I like your version much better! sounds a lot better.

otocinclus love diatom algae.

[garfieldnfish]

Bristlenose pleco if you have driftwood in the tank. He will eat green algae from walls, deco and gravel. Needs driftwood for digestion, plants are not needed. 3 otos if your tank is planted, do not need driftwood. (So this really depends on your tank set up). They eat green and brown algae off of anything, but need company of their own kind. 2 Siamese algae eaters (space permitting they get 6 inches each). Only fish that will east hair algae, green algae and all types of fish food, too and stays friendly to other fish. Also do better if more then one, they are very social. A combination of those will almost certainly result in no algae in your tank, except for blue/green algae and only drugs will work against that (actually not algae but bacteria, but looks like algae).
If you have neither driftwood, nor live plants and a small tank like 15 gal get a rubberlip pleco, he does not need plants or driftwood but needs place to call his home, a rock cave deco, coconut half etc. He will need a castle he can defend and hide in, but rubberlips are peaceful, very effective algae eaters and probably the easiest of all of them to take care of. But a little more shy then the rest. Mostly come out at night. I seem to have the rare exception in that mine is out all day, but he rules this tank.

[Damon]

Otos, cherry shrimp, bristlenosed pleco do great jobs. Now if you have established green spot algae on the tank walls, its best to use a credit card to scrape it off. Very few fish rasp hard enough to remove it once it has been there awhile. Use the credit card and you'll see what I mean. They will take care of new growth.

[j-man the skater-man]

how can you get rid of hair algea?.... it looks like little nasty strings on your deco and stuff right?

[garfieldnfish]

Siamese Algae eaters and Florida Flagfish are the only fish eating this stuff. SAEs need a lot of room and company of their own kind, the Florida flagfish can get aggressive. I would recommend you limit the time the tank lights are on. That will starve the hair algae of what it needs. Only turn on the lights for about 6 hours a day for a week and it should be gone. Worked in a couple of my tanks, where I could not move the SAEs in due to overstocking and aggression on the other fish' part (puffer tank).

[aquatic_dynasty]

Florida Flag Fish only get aggressive if you keep a female and male together, because they spawn like ciclids . I only kept males and they are very peacful in my community tank. They relish on hair algae constantly. Plus they are quite pretty