I have a 240 and I clean the sides to get rid of algae but I'd like to get a fish that can help eat the algae for me. I have a big datnoid, arowana, and peacock bass in there (all over 12"). I don't want to get a pleco because they poop more than they clean imo. What's a good fish that can help clean the glass and can live with big fish like mine?
What's the best algae eating fish that can move with monsters and isn't a pleco?
- Thread starter asm129
- Start date
+1 i had an unimaginable algae problem and in about 15 minutes it was all gone with this
No algae fish will completely clean the glass. Saying a fish poops more then they eat makes no sense.. how can that be? They can only poop what they eat. Nothing to eat nothing to poop. Get a Magnet cleaner like suggested.
While it is true that no fish can replace a Mag-Float, you can't use a glass cleaner on driftwood,substrate, or in many cases, the back of the tank. In my experience a Flagtail can out-eat a similarly sized Pleco by quite a bit, without the long stringy poops. There are some cichlids that scrape algae as well, both African and American.
A few plants will choke out most algae. Amazon sword plants are remarkably hardy, and don't really require any maintenance. A few of them in your tank will probably choke out any algae that you would have, depending on how much lighting you have.
But I agree about Plecos. They really don't clean algae as well as most people think, and most of them don't really even eat algae when they get older.
But I agree about Plecos. They really don't clean algae as well as most people think, and most of them don't really even eat algae when they get older.
+1
I can't reach the back of my tank with a magnetic scraper or anything really and my driftwood was covered in an ugly looking algae. I got my flagtail and the next day I couldn't believe what this little guy had done...it looked like a different tank. The algae on the back was 90% gone and my driftwood looked like it had just been powerwashed; these guys put plecos to shame. They are also not bad looking fish. Mine doesn't poop strings like plecos, but he is constantly crapping...he eats a lot of algae and all that has to go somewhere.
