What is growing on my plants?

[AlaskaCajun]

What the heck is this stuff growing on my plants? It seems to be some sort of Algae or something. I'm able to remove it by hand sort of but was wondering if there is a way of getting rid of it. It seems as though it is some sort of parasitic plant..... help!

The stuff I'm talking about is growing off the tips of the larger leaves in the pic....

- Clint


EDITED to change thread title!

 

[Jory]

hair /thread etc. algae. get a siamese algae eater and itll take care of it. you could pull it off if you want, but getting it all will take forever.

 

[AlaskaCajun]

I have 5 albino suckers and 2 chinese suckers... What is a Siamese Algae Eater?

- Clint

 

[WyldFya]

hair /thread etc. algae. get a siamese algae eater and itll take care of it. you could pull it off if you want, but getting it all will take forever.

Hair algae and thread algae are very different algaes. To lump them together, is why people have so many problems getting rid of them. Fixing the problem with these two algaes is like day and night.

 

[WyldFya]

What the heck is this stuff growing on my plants? It seems to be some sort of Algae or something. I'm able to remove it by hand sort of but was wondering if there is a way of getting rid of it. It seems as though it is some sort of parasitic plant..... help!

The stuff I'm talking about is growing off the tips of the larger leaves in the pic....

- Clint


EDITED to change thread title!

What you have is thread algae, which is a sign of an over-abundance of iron (Fe). This can be fixed by dosing some basic NPK ferts into your tank.

 

[dark_knights_99]

shrimps can help remove those algaes

 

[AlaskaCajun]

shrimps can help remove those algaes

Hmmmm, Interesting... I have at least 5 Bamboo shrimp and a dozen ghost shrimp hanging around in there. Is there a more specific shrimp that I should have?

I'll look into the NPK ferts tonight Wyldfya... thanks!

- Clint

 

[WyldFya]

Ghost shrimp are generally not algae eaters, but rather carnivores. Bamboo shrimp, depending on which one you actually get, are filter feeders. If yours have fans for front claws, they are filter feeders. Any species of Caridina or Neocaridina will do well against thread and beard algae, to different extents. Cherry red shrimp are a popular one, as are amano or algae eating shrimp.