Which FISH to choose

jay02483

jay02483

Member
Which fish 2 control hair algae is it lawnmower blenny or a tang (im looking at a kole) what do u guys think? or another fish possibly?
 
arvins

arvins

Member
Depends on tanks size and age really. If its a young tank you don't want to put scooter blenny in there because he'll eat everything and then starve and if its something like a 20 gallon you won't want to put a tang in there either.
 
jay02483

jay02483

Member
its over a year old...i just started 2 get problems after my friend watched my tank for like 10 days(i think he fed em 2 much)...its a 46gal
 
arvins

arvins

Member
Then my vote would be for the lawnmower blenny. As long as your tank can sustain him I'd get one, they are such neat little fish
Probably will need to offer him algae sheets to though because I've heard they will mow thru algae really fast.
 
pete159

pete159

Member
my lawnmower blenny will eat frozen mysis. he will not eat long hair green algae, only if its short.
I would get the biggest turbo snail you can find. they will eat the algae and then live off the live rock
 
gio28

gio28

Active Member
no tang in a 46 gallon...its too small of a tank. i had a lawnmower blenny and he loved algae. but he wouldnt eat algae sheets and before i knew it he died of starvation all of a sudden.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Your tank is too small, IMO, for the tang. I rarely suggest adding fish to control such a problem. It will take considerable effort on the water change side to get things right again - adding a new fish often just adds a significant additional bioload.
 
kevin34

kevin34

Active Member
based on my knowledge the only thing that is guarenteed to eat hair algea is a sea hare. other than that its hit or miss. they only eat it if they want to. problem with a sea hare is that if they die they can kill everything else in the tank and that isnt worth it in my opinion. i would try and solve the algea problem. like having too much light or phosphates being too high. somethings gotta be causing the algea growth
 
aquaknight

aquaknight

Active Member
Agreed with above (sorta). Adding more fish to a tank to help with a problem like nusiance algae is never a good idea. There are several possible reasons why you are having the GHA outbreak. I would look into and address these problems before adding more fish/bioload.
Some common problems, too high of bioload, bad water (meaning top-off/water change water has phosphates, etc), old light bulbs, direct sunlight onto tank, and insufficent filtration/water change schedule.
I not sure about recommending a sea hare though. Most starve in most people's tanks. They wipe out the hair algae problem, sure, but then they are left in a barren tank and waste away.
 
mantisman51

mantisman51

Active Member
I bought a lettuce nudibranch for the very small hair algae problem I had. The LMB didn't touch it. The nudibranch got rid of it, but then it starved over a couple weeks. My LMB is still kickin it old school, but I leave the sides and back of my 125g tank for him to graze.
 
mcdiver

mcdiver

New Member
a couple tubo snails workedfor me, nudibranch and sea hairs dont seem to live too long. But that may just be my tank.
 
gmann1139

gmann1139

Active Member
I had the same problem, bought a LMB. He wouldn't eat frozen, barely touched the flake, and wasted away, even after I moved him to my QT which was full of hair algae.
For that reason, I can't recommend getting a LMB, unless you can get it to eat something else besides algae. Its not worth seeing a great, personable fish waste away.
I have had good luck with the astraea/turbo snails from SWF mowing down hair algae. They eat it all, except for one strain in my 12g, that they won't touch.
 
T

tizzo

Guest
Awe, McDiver took my suggestion.
Mexican turbo's is what I was going to say...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top