Favorite algae eaters

Hi Shannon,

My favorite algae eaters are Cherry reds and Amano shrimp. I can spend endless hours watching them in front of my tanks.
On the pleco side, I like the clown peco which stays pretty small and keeps my driftwood clean.
Pygmy cory are fun to watch, but noy much of a algae cleaner.

Ken

 

My favorite subject! I love my Columbian spotted pleco, ottos, and SAE! I cant wait to get my big tank so I can add more! They are all so interesting!

 

right now I'm really enjoying my..

SAE's. I have 4 in the 75 and they are so neat to watch. They school together adn move from plant to plant in a team. I also like my bushy nose plecs. I had a clown but we never saw him. Also have about 5 ottos in the 75 that have been in there forever. Can't seem to keep them alive in any other tank though. I'd like to get my hands on some of those cherry red shrimp sometime soon. Maybe put them in the 20l. The angels in the 75 would see them as a snack

 

I love my cherry red and amano shrimp. Always entertaining and flitting around, picking at any surface (wood, rock, substrate, plant) they happen to land upon. They tend to congregate, IME, in certain areas at night.

Otos are also a favorite of mine. Small but industrious. Neither of these three ever make the slightest damage on my plants.

Carlos

 

What do you think of Tiger shrimp? Aren't they basically a varient of Amano shrimp, except that they look better? And anyone have Crystal Red shrimp?

My personal favorites are Ottos(especially Zebra sp.) and Farowella acus(great glass cleaning fish)...

 

i have 5 Ottos, around 8 Amano Shrimps, 6 pygme corys, 1 SAE in my 20gh tank. all of them r my favorites. if i really need to pick one, i CANNOT. coz all of them do nice job in my tank, except pygme cory. those little cute guys just search for food on the bottom. they dont really eat that much algae i believe. dont forget. pencil fishes they eat algae too. 4 species of pencil fishes i have so far. i like them!!!

 

What do you think of Tiger shrimp? Aren't they basically a varient of Amano shrimp, except that they look better? And anyone have Crystal Red shrimp?

My personal favorites are Ottos(especially Zebra sp.) and Farowella acus(great glass cleaning fish)...

i think tiger shrimps related with bumblebee shrimps, not amano i think. i have hard time to keep bumblebee tho. they r 1st place on my challenge list!!!

 

Well some things have changed in my tank. I moved everyone over to my new 75 gallon and my adult SAE is eating plants like crazy! Over one week he has chewed holes in almost every plant I have. I have tried feeding algea wafers, and have some zuchinni and lettuce in there now. I dont know what to do. The three juvenile SAE's dont touch the plants and school together too. I guess I am going to get a bigger net and attempt to catch him and get him outta there. Hopefully it was just a fluke and my other SAE's wont start eating plants too!

 

My pleco does a great job on my 30 gal, though he likes hiding better than cleaning He is still my fav though because of the design on his stomach.

 

crossocheilus siamensis, they works very hard. Also I have 3 ancistrus for clean the brown algaes if they appears.

 

Ramhorn snails and tiger shrimp. For fish algae eaters, I'd have to go with the zebra otto's as being the best combination of algae clearing ability and looks.

 

Caridina japonica
Otocinclus sp.

 

I would second Aquoi's selection, but I also love the SAE. They do a better job cleaning leaves and stuff like this. I used to breed betta's, and I would use root's covered in javamoss and ferns in the tanks. After a few weeks this root's would be absolutely covered in algea of all kinds. I would just chuck this into my plantet tank, and the SAE and otto's would clean it up perfectly in just hours! I never failed to impress visitord just how effectiv this was

 

I never had good SAEs...

 

amano shrimps no doubt, otos for its diligence. SAEs, off the chart.

Cheers
Vincent