Hey Everyone. We wanted to mention Flag fish are bred in Florida for the trade and were out of stock at the time of the show, so we had to shoot without them…they are terrific nibblers of green filamentous algae shoots, and we will give them some time on the next taping!
I had 5 neocardina shrimp in my 20 gallon originally. I like to let algae grow on the black wall of my aquarium for the fish to pick at if they want to, but 1 of my shrimp hatched at least 20 new shrimp and now they are making quick work of that wall. You probably just need a large number of them to be “useful” in an aquarium
I have a full grown chinese algae eater - very sweet and shy, never bothers anyone. In the same tank are 12 silver mollies and they keep the tank very clean. Thanks for the tip about adding a little salt to the tank for the mollies.
In all my years of keeping aquarium fish, i was quite shocked at one species that i adopted from an owner who was threatening his wife, that he was gonna flush them down the toilet. At that time i didn't have any fish...just planted aquariums. As we all know, 'just plants' also means all kinds of algae. After introducing them into the aquarium i didn't have to do my weekly algae cleaning anymore. This fish was a Platy....and i'm not talking about the family in general, of which i have had many varieties, but they wouldn't be on this list. It has to be the "Sunset Platy" There were about 15 to 20, various ages/sizes, but they all cleaned up the 30 gal. tank in a weeks time. I was shocked ! Only because of the fact nobody in the professional hobby ever mentioned this one variety. They also never stopped or got board, of which i've heard can happen with a number of "good" algae eaters. One detail i noticed was that the younger fish were meticulous at cleaning delicate plants like the moss's & Myriophyllum's. In the future i might try out the "Gold Platy" since they are the closest looking genetically. On another note, it's very important to not overfeed the Amano shrimp with any food, as they will stop being good algae cleaners. Thanks for a great video, it reminded me of a few species that i forgot i wanted. 😎
@ 5:40 mins. Those snails lay eggs in your tank, white tiny spots all over your aquarium. Hard to get rid of those spots which are very hard, looks like large grains of sand. The eggs will not hatch but some do, most of them will not. I had a couple that did hatch in my tank.....
This video is super informative! I love how you broke down the best algae eaters into categories-The Good, The Bad, and The Useless. It really helps to make better choices for maintaining a clean and balanced aquarium. Great content
Randy! You're a great speaker, thanks for the info! Just planted my carpet seeds for my first planted tank. 10gal bowl. Putting a list together so this was helpful!
The Siamese Algae Eater species name is actually Crossocheilus and Siamensis is actually a subspecies. The other species members look similar (and aren’t the Flying Fox, different species as you mentioned) and some are better algae eaters than C. Siamensis. In my experience, C. Langei and C. Reticulatus are algae eating powerhouses and more effective than C. Siamensis. All of which are peaceful and are great in community tanks. Also, Hillstream Loaches aren’t the only Loaches to eat algae. But Sewellia Lineolata (true Reticulated Hillstream) do have a different body from Gastromyzon Zebrinus (Striped Borneo Loach shown in the video). Although my favorite algae eating loach is the Panda Loach (Yaoshania Pachychilus).
I have had a lot of success with farawalla twig catfish and whiptail cats. They do really well at keeping my algae under control. These species are a bit harder to find, but they do a great job
The nerite snails 🐌 are super effective algae eaters. You can literally see them scrape off the algae with their frighteningly human looking teeth 😬😆. Interestingly in my fish tank they also spend considerable time outside the water where they seem to also eat fungi and they even seem to sleep there hidden away in their shell. I think they can do that because of the high humidity above the water in my closed top aquarium. Wherever they graze they leave a perfect little path that shows that they graze pretty systematic. The weirdest thing about them is that occasionally they make an audible sound. It’s hard to describe the sound and it’s rare but it was audible outside the tank and they produce that sound when they’re above the water. The sound is somewhat similar to chirping but certainly not that loud and less high pitched.
my experience was, that rosy barbs are very effective against filamentous algae, one eosy barb is enough for a 2 ft tank. Black molly is often used in marine tanks to control algae too. The problem with SAE is sometimes they can become aggressive and are a headache to catch if your tank is heavily planted.
I had a Silver Flying Fox (Crossocheilus reticulatus) and he was fantastic as far as algae eaters goes, including hair algae. Looks like a Siamese Algae Eater, but has a black dot where the tail fin starts instead of the black stripe. He was extremely territorial though. Any fish that searched for food in the substrate was an enemy (especially the ones of his own species). And both The Siamese algae eater and the Silver flying fox get big. Mine was about 15 cm (6 inches).
Hi there, enjoyed your video. Wanted to share that I actually have bred Oto's. Just to preface, I had no idea it was going on nor how to recreate it , but it happened. Shared on reddit with some photos too! I guess I was just lucky but I had a very heavily planted (dutch style) planted tank with 2 otos, some cherry shrimp and some chili rasporas. One day I almost freaked out because I thought I had hydras (had them once, was not fun to get rid of). Looked closer, and turns out it wasnt hydras stuck to the glass, but baby oto's!. All in all I counted about 21. Out of the 21, about 5 made it to adulthood. Apparently it's pretty rare for Oto's to breed in captivity, but just here to share that it definitely does happen!
I have had Amano Shrimp larvae survive to adulthood in freshwater, 4 from one spawn. My tapwater is pretty hard, but still, very much an outlier event. I was widely called a liar, but happen it did. Even showing photos of juveniles against adults failed to convince some! The female produced such a huge quantity of larvae the tank went cloudy with them, and is still alive and OK, and has spawned many times since, with no survivors. No known reason to help it happen again, just chance.
My best guess would be that you have some other species such as wild type neocaridina, ghost shrimp, or (unlikely) whisker shrimp or malawa shrimp. It is unfortunately a common occurence, shops trying to pawn off cheaper shrimp taht will breed in freshwater as real amanos.
For me one of the best algae eating fishes are Parotocinlus jumbo (LDA 25, Pitbull pleco) and Crossocheilus reticulatus (net brush algae eater or silver flying fox)!
So true, and then the barbed was the next to have a nibble! I like how he ignored those and only mentioned the siamese algae eater for his purpose that they're the best the algae eaters. xD
Agree but I think even floating plants do a nice job controlling algae - I am thinking of duck weed. (Of course they stifle light for the planted species - I am assuming that's why you're not a fan of them). This more "holistic" approach your advising with live plants (assuming not with too much light or too much fertilizer or too much CO2) is almost another video. Hmmmm....
@@randyhegstad5754 duckweed is a must my tank is full of it every two weeks I will get a comb and scrape out half of it to let some light through, as it gets pretty thick and blocks the light out indeed lol
In my experience, nothing beats Amano shrimp. They will clean up green algae, hair algae, black beard algae…and uneaten food. They will polish plant leaves, wood and even gravel! Full sized adults are recommended for best results. Only drawback is that you need a snug lid as they can and will seek adventure…although some swear that they had no losses due to escape.
I have two Chinese Algae eaters, one gold one brown. Each about 18cm. I like them. They have funny personalities. I don't have any problems with them in a community tank with all sorts including small fish like neons and baby fish born in the tank. The Golden one is clearly the boss and occasionally he will scoot through the tank and put everyone else in their place (mainly the other CAE and the clown loaches who are also a good size). I like this because it stirs up any extra food etc on the tank floor helping to send it to the filter IMO. But my tank is four foot, planted and well fed. In a small tank and hungry could be a different story.
This is an excellent video reference!! The information is comprehensive and echoes what you’ll see on many other platforms and books. I appreciate your time and experience putting this video together. Great job!!
Hello, i have a cold water 105l tank with 2 Zebra Nerite Snail and gold fish, i was thinking of getting shrimp and bristlenose, how many bristlenose would you recommend for a tank that size? Planning on getting young ones to grow but don't want them to outgrow? Any advice, I'm a beginner thank you
From experience (and a couple other videos details that), the main difference is they will reproduce in fresh water, but the Nerite snails do not. When you see a 'clutch' of eggs, you will have a 20 more snails. Before you know it, they will be everywhere, and then you have to give to a friend or sacrifice.
ask your hillstream loach, at 7:3) is the one at botton get ick/white spot? cos mine have that thing n i try to treat it with indian almond leaf but its die after 2 day. Or is that just a normal spot not a disease?
Spotted pattern is normal for these guys and easiest way to spot signs of ich if you think there is a spot on the body is to check the tail. If no ich there and fish is acting healthy most likely not ich
Those are great snails for algae but we don’t wholesale them because too many pet stores and their customers complain about them taking over the tank…I should look into them more sometimes a species gets an undeserved reputation.
I’ve got 4 Chinese algae eaters… the close main three pet stores only had them & plecos but the plecos are like special breeds and are being sold from $30-300 so we went with $2 per algae eaters 🙃 I wish they would’ve had the flying foxes
Move a Nerite snail from fresh water to brackish and they will be so much more active that you will think they are somehow on steroids. They survive in fresh, but they don't actually "thrive".
I was thinking of a panda gara or Hillstream, but BOTH show they only survive well in colder tanks. I have a discus tank I keep at 83, which from what I've read is too hot. I may try them anyway, but afraid they will just die. My chinese algae eater has grown way too big and does nothing but eat my fish food. My mini-pleco is semi-useless as well :(
I keep two types of snails in my ponds and aquariums i have never have to scrub off anything.. Excess food and plant matter are well taken care of.. I often have to sacrifice a few fr population control
I have gold algae eaters in my fish tank and after I put them in my tank has never been cleaner. Even the little hide tunnels I placed in there which was covered in algae became completely clean in a week
I found those fancy shrimps barely do any sh¡t to algae, so I went to my local fishing store and bought live bait… which is wild shrimp locally procured from paddy field. They don't eat hair algae, but they do clean up the bottom of my tank along with those molies 😂 so not a good algae eater, but they're good cleaner for any tank
Actually we thought to add a pleco, not the common one (usually trinidad) cause it grows a bit large, but we were thinking rubberlip pleco or bushynose pleco. Except we are putting a list of "scavangers" together and decided to add the plecos to that video.
Depending on what kind of community you have, i have a monster community and i have a sailfin pleco as an algae control and i feed it algae wafer if there's no algae. Also, sailfin plecos will not attempt to suck any bottom dweller tankmate so sailfin plecos are the best for me...
Imo, SAE and otocinclus are the best algae eaters. Stock them well (in terms of quantity to tank volume ratio and tank setup). Avoid aggressive tankmates (oto especially can get spooked easily). Feed them just enough and sparsely, when they have no more algae left to eat (difficult to do in a community tank).
Some people spot treat with hydrogen peroxide and take out decor and bathe it in hydrogen peroxide with water. Have you vacuumed your tank's floor? Most algae start from the bottom, especially hair algae. If you haven't, I recommend doing so when you do your water changes!
I agree but I couldn’t get mine to live past 2 months …. Had 3 different times all died …. From thriving to dying and have plenty of algae for them idk ???
They're amazing. They should have received a mention on our show; we didn't have them in stock during filming. Next week, they will get the praise they deserve!
We should make a video on this amazing question. Let’s go with three - plecos, Amano shrimp, and nerite snails! But there’s so many more. Video coming soon!
I run a Otocinclus fan page on Facebook and they can be breed I’ve got many member that have. They just are not profitable to breed in mass numbers due to how cheap they can be farmed wild.
I had some otocinclus breed in 1 of my tanks. They unfortunately didn't make it as there was something wrong with the tank, but I did get them to breed xx
Based on my own experience, oto prefers healthy and heavily planted tank, driftwood to hide and munching on, and definitely no aggressive tankmates (I even dedicate a tank just for oto). And yes they do breed.
I had a Chinese algae eater that still ate algae when it got big and never went after the rest of my fish I had people asking me if my tank just got cleaned when it hadn’t been cleaned in three years and I only had one Chinese algae eater
People in these comments man! There's so many factors there's different types of algaes. He's basically showing you a list of what to use so you don't get an algae issue. There's going to be fish or species that are better at removing a problem then versus ever having that problem.
Ghost fish, feeder minnows and guppies will be killed and eaten by bettas, but anything peaceful and not small enough to fit in your betta's mouth would work. In fact all the algae eaters mentioned on this show would work, along with live bearers (platies, mollies, guppies), and tetras. Maybe not barbs or cichlids - they can nip those fancy fins.
I just added some tetras and kuhli loaches to my betta tank. they don't seem to be bothering each other. get a few of them and make sure there's some plants or something to hide in
Unfortunately I got nerite snails for my tank and they don't care much for the algae, but they love eating my mopani wood and leaving wood coloured poops everywhere
Hey Everyone. We wanted to mention Flag fish are bred in Florida for the trade and were out of stock at the time of the show, so we had to shoot without them…they are terrific nibblers of green filamentous algae shoots, and we will give them some time on the next taping!
I had 5 neocardina shrimp in my 20 gallon originally. I like to let algae grow on the black wall of my aquarium for the fish to pick at if they want to, but 1 of my shrimp hatched at least 20 new shrimp and now they are making quick work of that wall. You probably just need a large number of them to be “useful” in an aquarium
I have a full grown chinese algae eater - very sweet and shy, never bothers anyone. In the same tank are 12 silver mollies and they keep the tank very clean. Thanks for the tip about adding a little salt to the tank for the mollies.
What kind of salt?
@@videosurfah Himalayan pink salt.
@@videosurfah after leaving my comment i felt guilty. Because i hope you dont add pink Himalayan salt😂 was a not funny/bad joke😂
@@antonioandrade4867 I don't add pink salt to my tank at all
@@videosurfah makes the fish taste better
In all my years of keeping aquarium fish, i was quite shocked at one species that i adopted from an owner who was threatening his wife, that he was gonna flush them down the toilet. At that time i didn't have any fish...just planted aquariums. As we all know, 'just plants' also means all kinds of algae. After introducing them into the aquarium i didn't have to do my weekly algae cleaning anymore. This fish was a Platy....and i'm not talking about the family in general, of which i have had many varieties, but they wouldn't be on this list. It has to be the "Sunset Platy" There were about 15 to 20, various ages/sizes, but they all cleaned up the 30 gal. tank in a weeks time. I was shocked ! Only because of the fact nobody in the professional hobby ever mentioned this one variety. They also never stopped or got board, of which i've heard can happen with a number of "good" algae eaters. One detail i noticed was that the younger fish were meticulous at cleaning delicate plants like the moss's & Myriophyllum's. In the future i might try out the "Gold Platy" since they are the closest looking genetically. On another note, it's very important to not overfeed the Amano shrimp with any food, as they will stop being good algae cleaners. Thanks for a great video, it reminded me of a few species that i forgot i wanted. 😎
Agree about the Platys - they are 'hunt and peck' eaters. Cleaned the plants, rocks, ornaments, everything but the glass!
Yup. Agreed. I used to keep them. And they were very good.
At least the fish were rescued...can't say the same for the wife 💀
@@keckingrabbit354 🤣 You are such a good psychic, cause you're dead on !
@ 5:40 mins. Those snails lay eggs in your tank, white tiny spots all over your aquarium. Hard to get rid of those spots which are very hard, looks like large grains of sand. The eggs will not hatch but some do, most of them will not. I had a couple that did hatch in my tank.....
maybe u had a perfect environment for them to breed
Happened to me to, I'll never do nerites again I spent over an hour painstakingly scraping their eggs off of my Driftwood
I was told nerites don't reproduce in fresh water. Only salt.
This video is super informative! I love how you broke down the best algae eaters into categories-The Good, The Bad, and The Useless. It really helps to make better choices for maintaining a clean and balanced aquarium. Great content
Randy! You're a great speaker, thanks for the info! Just planted my carpet seeds for my first planted tank. 10gal bowl. Putting a list together so this was helpful!
12k views in 4 days that impressive man. Only In the intro and I can already tell the video deserves the views
Thank you! we hope you enjoy it :)
The Siamese Algae Eater species name is actually Crossocheilus and Siamensis is actually a subspecies. The other species members look similar (and aren’t the Flying Fox, different species as you mentioned) and some are better algae eaters than C. Siamensis. In my experience, C. Langei and C. Reticulatus are algae eating powerhouses and more effective than C. Siamensis. All of which are peaceful and are great in community tanks. Also, Hillstream Loaches aren’t the only Loaches to eat algae. But Sewellia Lineolata (true Reticulated Hillstream) do have a different body from Gastromyzon Zebrinus (Striped Borneo Loach shown in the video). Although my favorite algae eating loach is the Panda Loach (Yaoshania Pachychilus).
I have had a lot of success with farawalla twig catfish and whiptail cats. They do really well at keeping my algae under control. These species are a bit harder to find, but they do a great job
The nerite snails 🐌 are super effective algae eaters. You can literally see them scrape off the algae with their frighteningly human looking teeth 😬😆. Interestingly in my fish tank they also spend considerable time outside the water where they seem to also eat fungi and they even seem to sleep there hidden away in their shell. I think they can do that because of the high humidity above the water in my closed top aquarium. Wherever they graze they leave a perfect little path that shows that they graze pretty systematic. The weirdest thing about them is that occasionally they make an audible sound. It’s hard to describe the sound and it’s rare but it was audible outside the tank and they produce that sound when they’re above the water. The sound is somewhat similar to chirping but certainly not that loud and less high pitched.
Are they safe for planted aquarium? Or they eat plant leaves also? Pls help
They are usually safe and will eat up the dead plants too@@Marsh003
@@Marsh003 my nerites never eat any of my plants, very safe
@@terraruins in my aquarium they don't even climb on plants, they prefer to climb on roots and glass
In my tanks, neo caridina shrimps like to clean brown algae ( diatom) . They do a pretty good job at eating the algae
Love my shrimp too! Great cleaners and keep my tanks very clean
my experience was, that rosy barbs are very effective against filamentous algae, one eosy barb is enough for a 2 ft tank. Black molly is often used in marine tanks to control algae too. The problem with SAE is sometimes they can become aggressive and are a headache to catch if your tank is heavily planted.
I had a Silver Flying Fox (Crossocheilus reticulatus) and he was fantastic as far as algae eaters goes, including hair algae. Looks like a Siamese Algae Eater, but has a black dot where the tail fin starts instead of the black stripe. He was extremely territorial though. Any fish that searched for food in the substrate was an enemy (especially the ones of his own species). And both The Siamese algae eater and the Silver flying fox get big. Mine was about 15 cm (6 inches).
Hi there, enjoyed your video. Wanted to share that I actually have bred Oto's. Just to preface, I had no idea it was going on nor how to recreate it , but it happened. Shared on reddit with some photos too! I guess I was just lucky but I had a very heavily planted (dutch style) planted tank with 2 otos, some cherry shrimp and some chili rasporas. One day I almost freaked out because I thought I had hydras (had them once, was not fun to get rid of). Looked closer, and turns out it wasnt hydras stuck to the glass, but baby oto's!.
All in all I counted about 21. Out of the 21, about 5 made it to adulthood.
Apparently it's pretty rare for Oto's to breed in captivity, but just here to share that it definitely does happen!
We bread otos in EU everywhere, have a look at some EU fishkeeping forums for infos how to.
I have had Amano Shrimp larvae survive to adulthood in freshwater, 4 from one spawn. My tapwater is pretty hard, but still, very much an outlier event. I was widely called a liar, but happen it did. Even showing photos of juveniles against adults failed to convince some! The female produced such a huge quantity of larvae the tank went cloudy with them, and is still alive and OK, and has spawned many times since, with no survivors. No known reason to help it happen again, just chance.
My best guess would be that you have some other species such as wild type neocaridina, ghost shrimp, or (unlikely) whisker shrimp or malawa shrimp. It is unfortunately a common occurence, shops trying to pawn off cheaper shrimp taht will breed in freshwater as real amanos.
For me one of the best algae eating fishes are Parotocinlus jumbo (LDA 25, Pitbull pleco) and Crossocheilus reticulatus (net brush algae eater or silver flying fox)!
Great video! Looking forward to the Heico video.
I can't believe your channel doesn't have more subscribers!! These are amazing videos
Thanks for saying so! Hope you stick around :)
This is an amazingly well-produced video - thanks so much!
The molly was clearly the first to try the moss. I've found molly to be very effective at keeping algae at bay on plants, rocks, and other decor.
So true, and then the barbed was the next to have a nibble! I like how he ignored those and only mentioned the siamese algae eater for his purpose that they're the best the algae eaters. xD
My favorite algae eater is the Farlowella aka twig fish. They do a great job with cleaning a tank.
Plants plants and plants defeat algae more then anything especially floating ones 👍
Agreed
Agree but I think even floating plants do a nice job controlling algae - I am thinking of duck weed. (Of course they stifle light for the planted species - I am assuming that's why you're not a fan of them). This more "holistic" approach your advising with live plants (assuming not with too much light or too much fertilizer or too much CO2) is almost another video. Hmmmm....
@@randyhegstad5754 duckweed is a must my tank is full of it every two weeks I will get a comb and scrape out half of it to let some light through, as it gets pretty thick and blocks the light out indeed lol
Especially red root floaters (idk about other fish tanks but they do great in mine)
Very informative video and straight to the point, you've earned a new subscriber. I hope to see your channel grow!!
In my experience, nothing beats Amano shrimp. They will clean up green algae, hair algae, black beard algae…and uneaten food. They will polish plant leaves, wood and even gravel! Full sized adults are recommended for best results. Only drawback is that you need a snug lid as they can and will seek adventure…although some swear that they had no losses due to escape.
Wow! That’s so interesting that you went and found 3 species of fish in Colombia! I’m from there and would love to do that.
We’ll have a video out soon about it :)
I have two Chinese Algae eaters, one gold one brown. Each about 18cm. I like them. They have funny personalities. I don't have any problems with them in a community tank with all sorts including small fish like neons and baby fish born in the tank. The Golden one is clearly the boss and occasionally he will scoot through the tank and put everyone else in their place (mainly the other CAE and the clown loaches who are also a good size). I like this because it stirs up any extra food etc on the tank floor helping to send it to the filter IMO. But my tank is four foot, planted and well fed. In a small tank and hungry could be a different story.
Tq for this infomation for algea eater. This make me help to buy the best algea eater.
Happy to help
The first video of yours I have seen and I subbed! Thank you.
Thank you for watching! Let us know if you want to see anything
This is an excellent video reference!! The information is comprehensive and echoes what you’ll see on many other platforms and books. I appreciate your time and experience putting this video together. Great job!!
Check out the Farlowella catfish. I keep them in my tank and they are phenomenal algae control fish!
Hello, i have a cold water 105l tank with 2 Zebra Nerite Snail and gold fish, i was thinking of getting shrimp and bristlenose, how many bristlenose would you recommend for a tank that size? Planning on getting young ones to grow but don't want them to outgrow? Any advice, I'm a beginner thank you
Otos have been bred in captivity, FYI. There are even a bunch of videos on it.
Thanks for this roundup 👍🏻
Finally an honest list. I had a tank of nothing but mollies and they never ate algae, not even one time.
I have been using nerites snails for a while now and they do a awesome job
What about rams horn snails?
In my aquarium they clean any algae that shows up
From experience (and a couple other videos details that), the main difference is they will reproduce in fresh water, but the Nerite snails do not. When you see a 'clutch' of eggs, you will have a 20 more snails. Before you know it, they will be everywhere, and then you have to give to a friend or sacrifice.
Just found your channel and I love it! Thanks for sharing knowledge ❤ keep the info coming!
Thanks for the help on this problem
Great, practical advice. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it!
ask your hillstream loach, at 7:3) is the one at botton get ick/white spot? cos mine have that thing n i try to treat it with indian almond leaf but its die after 2 day. Or is that just a normal spot not a disease?
Spotted pattern is normal for these guys and easiest way to spot signs of ich if you think there is a spot on the body is to check the tail. If no ich there and fish is acting healthy most likely not ich
Great video, thanks for the mention
I have sw tank,i put mollies and he doing great job 👍
They look beautiful together.
Surprised no mention of ramshorn snails. Never had an algae problem because of them.
Those are great snails for algae but we don’t wholesale them because too many pet stores and their customers complain about them taking over the tank…I should look into them more sometimes a species gets an undeserved reputation.
I’ve got 4 Chinese algae eaters… the close main three pet stores only had them & plecos but the plecos are like special breeds and are being sold from $30-300 so we went with $2 per algae eaters 🙃 I wish they would’ve had the flying foxes
Move a Nerite snail from fresh water to brackish and they will be so much more active that you will think they are somehow on steroids. They survive in fresh, but they don't actually "thrive".
I was thinking of a panda gara or Hillstream, but BOTH show they only survive well in colder tanks. I have a discus tank I keep at 83, which from what I've read is too hot. I may try them anyway, but afraid they will just die. My chinese algae eater has grown way too big and does nothing but eat my fish food. My mini-pleco is semi-useless as well :(
Love the Amano shrimp!
Great video Detroit
I have a few dwarf blue Mexican crayfish. They spend all day eating algae.
I keep two types of snails in my ponds and aquariums i have never have to scrub off anything.. Excess food and plant matter are well taken care of.. I often have to sacrifice a few fr population control
I have gold algae eaters in my fish tank and after I put them in my tank has never been cleaner. Even the little hide tunnels I placed in there which was covered in algae became completely clean in a week
I've got an orange pleco in our tank.My misses loves that fish says goodnight to him or her.I don't know the difference female or male.lol.
That’s a Chinese Algae eater
I found those fancy shrimps barely do any sh¡t to algae, so I went to my local fishing store and bought live bait… which is wild shrimp locally procured from paddy field.
They don't eat hair algae, but they do clean up the bottom of my tank along with those molies 😂 so not a good algae eater, but they're good cleaner for any tank
Never seen hill stream loaches before. Are they jumpers? I would like to get some.
My Bristlenose Plecos are 7 inches long. And almost 6 years old.
Great list. Just would have added thr common pleco in the no no section
Actually we thought to add a pleco, not the common one (usually trinidad) cause it grows a bit large, but we were thinking rubberlip pleco or bushynose pleco. Except we are putting a list of "scavangers" together and decided to add the plecos to that video.
Depending on what kind of community you have, i have a monster community and i have a sailfin pleco as an algae control and i feed it algae wafer if there's no algae. Also, sailfin plecos will not attempt to suck any bottom dweller tankmate so sailfin plecos are the best for me...
Imo, SAE and otocinclus are the best algae eaters. Stock them well (in terms of quantity to tank volume ratio and tank setup). Avoid aggressive tankmates (oto especially can get spooked easily). Feed them just enough and sparsely, when they have no more algae left to eat (difficult to do in a community tank).
Anyways, SAE are jumpers. I only keep them in a tank that have lid or net above it.
Wow so cool for your showing
Thanks for watching!
What is the huge shrimp in the mini tank on your right?
That’s a “Barbie Pink” Lobster: www.aquariumfishsale.com/products/barbie-pink-lobster
It looks like we are sold out :(
For Mollies.... What do you mean by a "pinch of salt"? How much per gallon and what type of salt?
Two ounces to ten gallons kosher or natural salt or marine salt. no salt w additives like iodine.
I lovvvve the ottos, there brilliant!
I have all of these and still have a major hair algae problem. Light 5 hours a day, light feeding once a day. 50% water changes weekly.
Some people spot treat with hydrogen peroxide and take out decor and bathe it in hydrogen peroxide with water. Have you vacuumed your tank's floor? Most algae start from the bottom, especially hair algae. If you haven't, I recommend doing so when you do your water changes!
THE BEST ALGAE EATER I HAVE EVER HAD IS GUPPY GRASS THE ALGAE NEVER GETS A CHANCE TO GROW
Blather snails and amano shrimp made my nano aquarium spotless in a mather of three days
Butterfly loaches are awesome first time I saw one i thought it was a fresh water sting ray or flounder of some kind
I agree but I couldn’t get mine to live past 2 months …. Had 3 different times all died …. From thriving to dying and have plenty of algae for them idk ???
I have bred otocinclus. Had loadsa sword plants.
ottos less than 5 bucks?? *cries in 21 per otto where i live
My oto from my local fish store is usd$1.10 each. And I live in Singapore, far away from South America 😮
~2.31 USD/otocinclus here in South Korea at big-box stores.
My LFS sells em for like $3
We sell them for $1.99
18 AUD in Australia, which is probably 10-12 USD
Oto is the best at clearing. Took two days cleaned every bit. Once they are full they become lazy.
Ha. Same.
I have a spotted Raphael cat fish who’s 3 years old, what other algae eater can I add to the tank ?
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Florida Flag Fish aka American Flag Killi are the numero uno Algae assassins! SAE and Otos are pretty good too, but not touching FFF.
They're amazing. They should have received a mention on our show; we didn't have them in stock during filming. Next week, they will get the praise they deserve!
Will the Rubber Lip Pleco eat Amazon Sword Plants? Apparently Bristlenose Plecos do.
What are the best for eating dead plant matter? 🤔
We should make a video on this amazing question. Let’s go with three - plecos, Amano shrimp, and nerite snails! But there’s so many more. Video coming soon!
don't otocinclus breed in leaf litter filled water?
Can you use the algae eaters with a red ear turtle?
I run a Otocinclus fan page on Facebook and they can be breed I’ve got many member that have. They just are not profitable to breed in mass numbers due to how cheap they can be farmed wild.
I had some otocinclus breed in 1 of my tanks. They unfortunately didn't make it as there was something wrong with the tank, but I did get them to breed xx
@6:35
Panda Garras are not Gobies; they are Cyprinids
I breed Otto’s ! Super easy once you know the secret. I have refined the process over the years but not worth breeding for profit
Based on my own experience, oto prefers healthy and heavily planted tank, driftwood to hide and munching on, and definitely no aggressive tankmates (I even dedicate a tank just for oto). And yes they do breed.
hi! how do you prevent your fish and shrimps to jump out of a tank with no lid?
get floating plants and lower water level
I also Finnally got a lid. My Beta was jumping and I was scared I would loose her. It's a female
thats a cool setup of fish add like 10 of each great tank setup of cleaners hahahaha
Any recommendations for an algae eater that is turtle tank friendly? Definitly mollies would be safe but I’d like a bit more algae control
Hillstream loach as long as you have some rocks or live plants
Nice video😊 Just love our Honeycomb ancistrus. As long as they are young, they do a fantastic job keeping that glass clean😉👌
I have pink ram horn snails and I got to say they eat algae with more gusto than the nerites...
New subscriber here 😊
I had a Chinese algae eater that still ate algae when it got big and never went after the rest of my fish I had people asking me if my tank just got cleaned when it hadn’t been cleaned in three years and I only had one Chinese algae eater
I have to much algae in mine aquarium. So thank you!
In my opinion, the American Flag Fish does a better job at clearing up algae than the entire list.
Big fact! I put 5 in my 75g and the tore up ALL the hair algae in 2 days.
Totally Agree! Wish we had some in stock, But we should have mentioned them during our recording! Good call.
People in these comments man! There's so many factors there's different types of algaes. He's basically showing you a list of what to use so you don't get an algae issue. There's going to be fish or species that are better at removing a problem then versus ever having that problem.
I have a 20gal tank with a betta. What other fish can I add?? I had a couple ghost shrimp but my betta killed them so what would be a good mate?
Snails?
Ghost fish, feeder minnows and guppies will be killed and eaten by bettas, but anything peaceful and not small enough to fit in your betta's mouth would work. In fact all the algae eaters mentioned on this show would work, along with live bearers (platies, mollies, guppies), and tetras. Maybe not barbs or cichlids - they can nip those fancy fins.
I just added some tetras and kuhli loaches to my betta tank. they don't seem to be bothering each other. get a few of them and make sure there's some plants or something to hide in
I use 3 Siamese algae eaters (real ones), and 2 nerite snails. Rarely if ever, do i need to clean out any algae. 20 gallon tank.
Unfortunately I got nerite snails for my tank and they don't care much for the algae, but they love eating my mopani wood and leaving wood coloured poops everywhere
Can these live with an aquatic turtle?
I'm here to say I can train algE eaters miss my last one named "Sopper "😢
Thank you.
U missed black molly. They are excellent algae eater!
He did mention them…
Its funny how he didn't add the RFT(Red flag tail) on the list, could've been the number 1 best algae eater
We know….We didn't have it in stock, but flag tails are incredible. We're planning to make another video and feature that awesome fish.
Where does the golden alge eater fit in this. Im guessing similar to the Chinese
Exactly. They are pretty though.
So out of all of this algae eaters... Which ones will stay the smallest and which ones are best for a nano tank
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