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Roomate wanted: must eat algae.

5K views 52 replies 13 participants last post by  Oldfishlady 
#1 · (Edited)
The Tank:
So I've got my Beta tank going now with a small community. It's a 10gal with live plants, my Beta, a school of Neon Tetras and a school of Rasboras.

The Problem:
I had added some ghost shrimp and everyone got along fine. Then I noticed I could not find my ghost shrimp anymore and found the dried up husk of one outside my tank. They are cheap enough that buying more is not the problem, there just aren't any to be had to buy! All my local and even non-local pet stores are out and have been having a very hard time getting any ghost shrimp in. It took almost 3 weeks of searching and phone calls to finally get some and even then the store only got 6.

So, I need a better solution. What other algae eaters would work well in my tank?
 
#10 ·
Your tank IMO is a little bit overstocked. How many fish are in per school?
Otos need to be kept in groups or else they would be stressed... Snails and shrimp are your only option. Is your tank heavily planted or a NPT?
 
#20 ·
This is also true. In big tanks with only one algae eater it might not be too bad but you'll be supplementing lots of other food (which you should do anyway!).

In all honestly, unless you get a bigger tank (Petco is having their $1 a gallon sale!!!!!) you're probably better off scraping and vacuuming for now. Or minimizing your lighting if your plants are low/med light.
 
#21 ·
Ah, just remembered something that is sort of on topic. When I was a very little girl my grandfather had a 200+ gallon tank full of tropicals. One fish in particular was a common pleco. He ended up having to trade that big guy in because he got over a foot long in a pretty short period of time. Never once did I see algae in that tank.
 
#22 ·
Really he traded it? A foot long is not too big for a 200. Common Plecos are in huge demend from Oscar Enthousust. If I remeber right farms dont raise them big enough. So people hand there adult ones to the Oscar enthusoust. They get a baby repeat cycle. I would not reccomend that strategy though.
 
#25 ·
Oh okay. Was it smaller fish? I want a huge tank for my guppy colony someday. I plan on having that Colony all my life. If there healthy enough Marine/Brackish colony. Water changes are best for algae. What kind of Algae?
 
#32 · (Edited)
The denizens of my 10gal are:
1 Dragonscale Betta
6x Neon Tetras
3x Harlequin Rasbora

I am not having a problem with red/brown algae. There is some in the tank, yes, but I expect that at this point since the tank is only about a month old so still stabilizing.

All my chemical levels are acceptable and since the tank is on the desk in my office, it gets a LOT of attention. Filtration and cleanliness of the tank are excellent.

I would describe the tank as moderate to heavily planted, though I know that is highly subject to a person's opinion. Once the plants start to really grow it will become heavily planted and need to be kept trimmed.

I do not want snails and my local and not-so-local stores are having trouble getting ghost shrimp. In fact I was at a store this afternoon and nearly their entire shipment arrived.. dead.
 
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