Re: [APD] Plant safe algae eaters.

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

The most commnly available are probably the Ancistrus species. If given hiding places, then can breed like guppies, so keeping more than one can be risky, especially for swords, lotus, and other large-leaf plants, which the Ancistrus will overgraze. Adding algae wafers can somewhat mitigate the overgraing on leaves.

Full grown, they will reach about 6 inches, so they aren't a very good choice for small tanks. Otoh, a single specimen will be too few to be thoroughly effective with algae in a large tank. But they are probably the best at eating various types of surface algaes. 

Be nice to them and give them some driftwood to rasp on.

have plants, have fun,
sh




----- Original Message ----
From: "Brown, Daniel" <dpbrown at ea_com>
To: harry at harrymartincartoons_com; aquatic plants digest <aquatic-plants at actwin_com>
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 1:52:44 PM
Subject: Re: [APD] Plant safe algae eaters.


Forgive my ignorance but I've never heard of a dwarf pleco before can
you give any more information on this species?  As it sounds like it
could be an candiate for my tank if I can source one locally... 

-----Original Message-----
From: aquatic-plants-bounces at actwin_com
[mailto:aquatic-plants-bounces at actwin_com] On Behalf Of Harry Martin
Sent: 30 March 2007 10:52
To: aquatic plants digest
Subject: Re: [APD] Plant safe algae eaters.

On Fri Mar 30 10:02 , 'Brown, Daniel' <dpbrown at ea_com> sent:
>Potentially slightly off topic...
>
>I seem to be having terrible luck trying to keep Otto Catfish in my 30G

>planted tank, then seem fine for a week or two and then I find them 
>dead or dying.

Not off topic for me.
I keep a dwarf pleco in my 55 gal. planted tank.
It was selected so that it does not get too big and devour the plants.
Beautiful little bugger and he's pretty good at eating the brown algae.

I can't comment on the dying fish. When restocking my tank, I expect
some fish to die just from stress. I try to select only the strongest
specimens from the store.

--
Harry Martin
Casper, WY


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