Algae Eater?

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Sarah88

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 27, 2009
3,919
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Wilmington, NC
ok so i have this really gross clear/gooey thick algae that is growing on my mopani driftwood, was told it was supposed to go away after couple weeks but its been 4-5months now and its still there and i have completely scrubbed down the wood 2 or 3 times and it always grows back, my water is very good i do 50%wc weekly and only algae in my tank is this weird stuff thats growing on the driftwood, would a "chinese algae eater" (sorry don't know scientific name) eat this type of algae or no? its really driving me crazy because it looks sooo gross and i really want my wood to look nice like its supposed to :(
 
Well - this is going to be a bit biased, so take if for what it is, but heres my opinion.... first off, I have no idea if a chinese algae eater will eat your nasty algae or not.... but, before even trying that - I'd ask, what kind of other fish do you have in the tank? Heres why I ask:

About a year ago, I was at the LFS - they had this awesome chinease algae eater, about 4" long - I thought, what the hay - he's awesome, hes a friendly fish, I will buy him, I have the room - and so I did.... tossed him in my planted 125g after a quarantine period... a couple days later, I had a praecox rainbow die.... I checked my water quality, etc. everything was good, couldnt explain it.... a few days after that, I had another die... then the final straw, I had a track eel die (I was very attached to this little guy)... I noticed these events all seem to happen AFTER I got the #$%^&ing algae eater.... So I did a little research, turns out - they have been known (once they reach a larger size) to eat the slime coat off other tankmates, causing death... Needlesss to say, I was SOOOO pissed - I took him back to the LFS, they woudlnt refund me, infact they were hesitant to even take him back, giving me the same reason that I just experienced (but neglecting to tell me that when I purchased him)!!! So, long story short, I never returned to that LFS and I will NEVER buy one of those <insert mean name here>'s again!!!!!!!!!!
 
get a prochilodus flagtail 3" are like $20 and do wonders.. get a pleco, or use a chemical. i've tried all and have fallen in love with the flagtail... i love their big eyes. Mine is about 7" now.
 
yeah i posted this in another forum as well and thats what they said about the CAE so def dont think i will be getting one as i have some of my cichlids are still small and def wouldnt want to risk it, i also dont want to add any chemicals when it is a natural thing that this type of wood does, its just i thought it was supposed to last as long as it is but someone else said theirs lasted for 6months!!! that would suck but yeah i think im going to kep my eye out for a bristlenose pleco or something i just dont want to get one that will get over 12in
 
First off, scrubbing the wood isnt helping. The only thing that will make that fungus go away is the BB that will colonize it & choke out the fungus. Every time you scrub it off, the BB die & the fungus can recover much faster then they can. Just leave it alone & it will eventually go away... A Pleco of some kind will help, though. I like rubbernose because they only get about 5" & they have massive appetites for algae.
 
thanks yeah thats what someone else advised as well so thats what im keeping my eye out for, i dont have a good lfs here so just the big chains and all they carry that iv seen are the common plecs and CAE but im going to go check out a smaller chain store today (if theyre open today) and see what kind of plecs they have, also its shorter today than the past couple days so maybe that means its on its way out :)
 
cool thanks ill def go have a look there then
 
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