Algae Eater for African Tank?

[stewnew]

Im starting to get some algae buildups on the driftwood and rocks in my tank, so i was thinking of picking up some kind of pleco or something...

Any suggestions on good algae eating tankmates for african cichlids?

 

[worm2925]

i got about 20 olive nert snails in my 75 gallon African tank they do a great job

 

[stewnew]

interesting... do you have any issues with the snails overpopulating?

or the cichlids eating the snails?

 

[worm2925]

not at all they lay eggs but not fertile my fish pick them up but don't eat them

 

[Muske]

BN's are popular AC plecos.

 

[bayst]

I've been researching this myself. I'm going to look into the snails too. I keep reading that Synodontis catfish are one of the best additions to an AC tank. They live in the Rift Lakes so the water that ACs like is the same. S. multipunctatus, S. lucipinnis and S. petricola are the ones mentioned often. I'm leaning towards S. lucipinnis myself as these guys are fairly small and since they like to be in groups of 3 or more, hopefully they won't add a heavy bioload.

I never kept them, but I've seem more than a few call plecos dirtier. (???)

I had a golden SAE that someone gave me, but he died. I wouldn't recommend getting one. He didn't eat much algae and kinda bugged my fish sometimes. I think they might have gotten fed up with him and had something to do with his rather sudden death.

 

[stewnew]

BN?

whats that stand for?

Im a pleco noob

Ive got an algae eater already!
he used to do a good job but hes seemeing to prefer food that falls to the bottom of the tank over algae anymore...
ive heard that SAEs tend to get bored with algae as they grow, so i was looking for something to supplement him...

Im only working with a 55, so multiple cats may be a little excessive... but ill look into those species

and yeah... plecos put off a lot of waste

 

[Tstove15]

BN stands for bristle nose pleco....that is what i keep in my african tank and this is what i would reccomend. For some reason my BN only likes to take care of the brown algae and not green algae but he cleared the brown algae in my tank overnight....I would highly reccomened one

 

[Tstove15]

and bristle nose plecos stay very small

 

[stewnew]

perfect!

i had already been considering those guys cause my lfs has them in stock, but im concerned about size and efficiency...

what about rhino plecos? im sure they get huge... but i love the look of them..
would they be able to cut it with the africans?