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Ameca splendens



Liisa Sarakontu wrote....

>I asked here some time ago about Ameca splendens and its ability to
>eat algae. I had found deep from aquaria archived few saved messages
>about Ameca splendens eating blue-green algae and how somebody had
>seen that happens in Oleg Kiselev's tank. Well, now I asked Oleg
>about that and he said that it eats only some types of green algae,
>not blue-green.

Below is a reprint of the post made by one Matt Kaufman.

Matt Kaufman says......

"Get a *real* algae eater, Ameca splendens, a smallish (platy sized)
very hardy fish that eats hair algae, green spot algae and (get this
net.sufferers,) blue-green algae.

I put a colony of 6 into a 20L that had the surface covered in
thick, robust green hair algae. The algae was threatening to engulf
the few killies and the hornwort I had in there. Result? 1 month
later, absolutely no algae in the tank, *no duckweed* (they eat that
too) but a 20L *filled* with hornwort - imagine a hornwort ball
30" long, 1 ft. high, 1ft deep and you'll be on target. The
tank is very brightly lit with a shoplite with a 4' vitalite (hornwort
seems to like that as well) and an agro-light.

The splendens, not a really glamorous fish, is a goodeid, so its a livebearer
with funny reproductive geometry that gives birth to few, but larger
(1/3-1/2" long) young. Any fish that'll eat blue-green algae has a place
in my fishroom.

Find the splendens, you'll be much better off."


I was interested in ridding myself of spot and especially hair algae
so I sent him a note inquiring sources for A. splendens. I guess
that his address has changed. It still was an intriguing statement.
Has anyone else obtained the same results with this species or
know where I might be able to source them.

Dave

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