Fahaka and algae

[Charney]

So my planted 120g with my 16 inch fahaka is having one heck of an algae problem. I thought I had enough of a head ache with the puffer laying eggs every couple months and now I have this. I am at the point where I am getting desperate. Has anyone every put a nerite snail in a fahaka tank? Any chance it left it alone? Any try true Siamese algae eaters, are the fast enough? Thanks

 

[xrayjeeper83]

I put a oto in mine and it was dead in under 5 mins, found nothing but a head. Try cutting back on the lights and clean up the extra food better.

Thought: with a fahaka of that size you may get away with some ghost shrimp in there. They will eat the algae and are so small your puffer may ignore them

 

[Pufferpunk]

Nerites have very hard shells--no doubt your puffer will try to eat it & very possibly chip it's teeth on it.

 

[Charney]

will she be able to crack he nerites shell?

 

[geronimo69]

You need something to take the excess nitrates out of the water. Do you have a sump? Cut back on lights, add C02, maybe some moss balls in your sump (if you have). Just a few ideas. An animal (snail, etc) isn't the answer. I can't keep anything with my Fahaka and he's only about 6". It's a non planted tank, but I keep a few plants in pots in my sump for just this reason (eat nitrates).

 

[Charney]

I have cut back greatly on the lights, unfortunately don't have a sump, and I would like CO2 one day, but not ready to make the investment now. The tank is fairly heavily planted. I was thinking about adding some pennywort to try and suck up extra nutrients. I have used nerites in the past for taking care of algae and they are incredible. They work great in both planted and non planted tanks. If my fahaka can crack them they are obviously no good.

 

[Pufferpunk]

He will certainly try & will possibly chip a tooth on them.