Best Algae Eaters for a Planted Aquarium

[rit]

it depends on what type of algae in the aquarium because each fish/shrimp has different behavior. They like different kind of algae. i agree to use various types .

[Norbert Sabat]

My 3cents

Otos - well, IMHO they eat mostly brown algae on rock, glass, plants. They eat green spot algae but only little so they don't clean greenish rock . I keep them but they aren't much useful...

SAE - many people says that they are lazy sometimes and they eat fishfood than BBA. Well... I had 2SEA in tank with rocks and some BBA on them (not so much). I removed SAE because i was thinking that they eat moss. What happend? 2weeks later beautifull BBA carpets on rocks ...

Amano shrimps - sometims algae eating beasts ...sometimes lazy son#%#@$!! IMO they are good for green algae on wood, hair algae (short) and some BBA if they hungry. I had 44l tank where 3amano shrimps clean big wood from GSA.....oh, i was forgot - in same time in that tank was 200-250 cherry shrimp (lazy, unusefull bastards)

Cherry shrimp - i think that sometimes they eat Cyano Bacteria - not much but if there is small cyano in tank they could help.

Neritina, clithon snails - i agree, they clean rocks but they don't like soft and acid water (specialy Neritina) so they can escape from tank . Also big problem are snails eggs on rocks - this look terrible and inpossible to clean it in tank !!!

[mitrandirPL]

imho the best algea eaters are dwarf shrimps. luckily I never had bigger problems with algae in my tanks. imo the best way to avoid algae is to have a stabilized tank-good water parameters parameters etc

[rickylbc]

Can you mix Otto's with CRS and other shrimps?

[trenac]

Otto's & shrimp go well together.

[rickylbc]

Thank you, what about using fertilizer with the Otto's in the tank, can they tolerate it? I use KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4 and CSM+B. TIA

[chillaquaplants]

Originally Posted by rickylbc

Thank you, what about using fertizer with the Otto's in the tank, can they tolerate it? I use KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4 and CSM+B. TIA

I keep otos in just about every tank I own and I've never had a problem with this.

[epicfish]

Originally Posted by chillaquaplants

I keep otos in just about every tank I own and I've never had a problem with this.

+1. My otos are fine with my dosing.

[rickylbc]

Thanks guys.. I appreciate all the info.

[akmal]

Otos are fine with a large range of dosing just like any fish, however, shrimps might not tolerate large swings in the water chemistry...spreading out the dosing (smaller dose, more frequent) or lean dosing should be ok for them...