Algae in African Cichlid tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
gilberbt said:
Nerite Zebra Snails. They look cool and do not breed in freshwater like other snails and eat alge 10x more than my spotted pleco I have. The only knock I have on them is that they will lay eggs from time to time but will never hatch just get eaten by other fish or get scrapped off or dissolve over time.
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yea there great i actually have some but i thought they would get beat up from the cichlids
 
definitely look into bristlenose plecos. They are extremely hardy. I have two in my tank and they are the oldest fish in there. prob about 8 years old
 
angelojg22 said:
yea there great i actually have some but i thought they would get beat up from the cichlids
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Youre absolutely right... Many Africans are crustacian eaters, and it'd be a waste of money to buy snails... The bristlenose is probobly your best bet, unless you wanna go high dollar and get something uber cool like a green phantom or something :)
 
I actually promote algae growth (green kind, brown usually is a sign of bad/new water) in my Mbuna tank, I keep the glass clean, but let it grow all over the BG and rocks. They keep the Aragonite churned up enough not to grow on it and they LOVE to eat it. So cool to see them pecking away at the rocks and BG like they would in the wild. I actually only feed them about 4 times a week and not much each time b/c I see them eat so much of it. Guess it depends on what type of Africans you have.
 
I used to have big problems with algae but got 6 zebra snails and a para pleco, because it won't get as big as other plecos, and that has kept the algae under control. I haven't had any problems with the Africans going after the snails.
 
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