Scuds vs Black Beard Algae

[Deadeye]

2 of my tanks are loaded with BBA. Not a single rock or (fake) plant is free of it, so I figured I would test out how my amphipods would handle it.
I took out a piece of plastic hornwort and tossed it in, curious to see if they would treat it like real hornwort (completely destroy it). After a few days, all of the black beard was gone. Today, I took some more decor out to see if the result will be the same.
On the right is the original hornwort put in, everything else hasn’t gone in the scud tank yet. It looked just like the other hornwort before going in:

 

[Deadeye]

Took longer than I hoped, but:

Not a spot of BBA!

 

[FJB]

I like the job the scuds did! So how long did it take them?
It would be nice to be able to do that in a bba-infested tank, except that the scuds may get eaten by the fish faster that they can eat the algae.

 

[Deadeye]

I like the job the scuds did! So how long did it take them?
It would be nice to be able to do that in a bba-infested tank, except that the scuds may get eaten by the fish faster that they can eat the algae.

I put the plants in 2 weeks ago. I’ve been busy so I haven’t had much time to monitor how long it actually took them though. I’ll keep better tabs on the new amount of decor I put in. I did find a whole bunch of damselfly nymphs that probably made a nice meal out of a good amount of my population. Now that they are gone the rate should hopefully increase with the amount of scuds.
Probably depends on the types of fish they are put with. When they went in my cichlid tank, the cichlids paid little attention to them, but the rainbowfish went crazy. In my puffer tank, nothing let’s them last long.
I’d assume in a lightly stocked, heavily planted, sand bottom tank, they would do quite well and survive long term enough to do a number on algae. Or in a tank with only fish big enough not to regard them as food.

 

[HarleyK]

This is great info. I’ve never heard of scuds doing this. But I have Hyalella azteca in all of my tanks, and I do not have any BBA.

Nice insight, thank you for sharing!!!

 

[The Masked Shadow]

That’s pretty cool! What about CITA Cyano?

 

[robmcd]

This could be a breakthrough in algae control!!

 

[Deadeye]

That’s pretty cool! What about CITA Cyano?

I’ve killed off my cyano with chemiclean, so I haven’t had a chance to test how they would react to it, but these things have a voracious appetite. Only one way to find out!

Check your gymno tank for scuds. They love to hitchhike on plants. You could start a culture and try!

 

[Deadeye]

Still trucking along. Cleaned off my last batch of plants and I’ve put in another. Bba is already starting to grow back on the earlier plants (hopefully the clumps of hornwort help to fight it). Looks like I’ll be periodically feeding it to the scuds to control it.
The tank is looking green again as opposed to the previous black color it had for quite some time.
I’ll post before and after pics once it’s all done!

 

[FJB]

I want to get me some scuds!