[APD] Hair Algae & Flying foxes & Mollies

[Stuart Halliday <stuart at stuarthalliday_com>]

I believe Daniel Gottsegen wrote this email section below:
> Don't know if this is considered sacrilege, not just playing with tank 
> parameter, but it was my understanding that only one species of fish 
> will actually eat hair algae: the Siamese Algae Eater. 

Not true, my Mollies (Poecilia latipinna or Poecilia formosa ) eat it.

> One has to be > sure to have true SAE's (not flying foxes),

True. I've got 2 Siamese Algae Eaters (or Siamese Flying Foxes as they're
called in the UK) and two Flying Foxes. They look very similar.
The FF don't eat the Hair.
The SFF on the other hand are a treat to watch, very passive.

The enclosed picture shows the two types.

One fish the shops are always pushing here in the UK is the awful Chinese
Algae Eater. IMHO it is pretty useless and to me an ugly fish.
I wonder why it's so popular in the shops?

> It has been my experience 
> that once you win the battle and the higher plants won out, the hair 
> algae did not return.

I found ensuring good water circulation to stop Ammonia build up spots and
reduced feeding the fish helped me enormously. :-)

--
Stuart Halliday

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