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Re: BGA (Another Country's Heard From)
With all the recent discussion of BGA, I thought I'd just relate a recent
experience. I have a 5 ga. fry tank with substrate consisting of half
flourite and half gravel with an undergravel filter. It originally
contained about thirty infant Zebra Danios and no plants. To accelerate
growth, I fed the fish about six times daily and kept the 20 watt
incandescent light on, 24 hours a day. Within a short time, the entire
bottom and portions of the sides were covered with BGA. I actually thought
some of it was rather pretty. As a result of several blessed events
occurring with Mollies, Platys and Guppies belonging to my grandkids, I
ultimately added about thirty live bearers. The Live bearers began to graze
on the BGA as soon as they became large enough. In-family transfers reduced
the Zebra population to about ten. I continued to force feed, added a few
Ramshorns and began to throw in pruned Anacharis and one drop of PMDD per
day. I almost never replace water, but simply replace evaporated stuff with
water from changes in my other tanks. I never test ANYTHING in this tank.
The upshot of all of this mismanagement is..... About forty fat adolescent
Zebras and live Bearers, five gallons of anacharis, absolutely no BGA, and
crystal clear water. Oh yeah, I recently threw in four sickly valisnaria
shoots and they are now thriving. I recently transferred an armload of
Anacharis to an outdoor pond to revert the tank back to an underplanted
condition just to see what happens. I believe the livebearers and
snails simply consumed most of the BGA and the Anacharis finished it off.
Having said all of this , I am leaving for a week in Kauai to escape any
possible rejoinders and expressions of disbelief. See ya all in a week
Norb Spitzer