Algae Eating Fancy Pleco

[loach43]

My rubber nose destroys a ton of algae, but the are small.

Best example of an algae eating pleco yet IMO. I'd kill to have one of the larger chaetostoma sp. in one of my tanks. Some of em get quite large.

 

[benzjamin13]

Who else is tired of these repetitive posts where plecos are only thought to be algae scrapers.

Search the forum there is at least one post per week where this subject is brought up..Plecos need a varied diet, they are not the disposal crew for poor tank maintenance..

Thank you for listening to my rant.........

I want a Pleco to help with algae control. I don't consider them a clean up crew! I take good care of my tanks and I take good care of the Plecos I currently have. I would just like to have a nice one to HELP with controlling any algae that may occur in the back of the tank where I can't reach.

Sorry if this is repetative to you, but welcome to forums where everything is repetative!

 

[davo]

This is the most commonly asked question in this forum, and if you used the search funtion you'll get a number of hits. IME Chaetostoma species are reasonable algae removers and to an extent the ancistrus species. However, they still probably won't make your algae dissappear if well fed and will add to the tanks waste which would theoretically fuel more algae growth. But as said before most species wont touch algae if well fed, including my gibbiceps...

 

[sje106]

Personally i'd go for a nice looking Ancistrus or a Golden Nugget or a Chaetosoma sp. possibly a common or a Gibbi but both get large!!

oh yeah the reason why your Vampire won't eat algae? look at his teeth! there not design for it, he is more a carnivorous scavenger. hence the vampire name and the dentition.

 

[justin]

I had an 11" choclate pleco that never stopped eating algae in my pond. I would give him a piece of shrimp and when he was done with that he continued eating algae again.