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I am looking to add some type of algae eater since I am getting some green growth on my glass, and brown hair growth on my rocks and plants.

I feed spirulina sticks that explode when the mbuna attack them...so I am getting food contributing to to algae growth.

What can I get to help control this? Keep in mind I don't want a Pleco that turns into a freakin whale?!?!

Something that gets to a max of 5-6 inches at most would be ideal?

Any suggestions?

72G Bowfront. 1 Sunshine Peacock, 2 Yellow Labs, 1 Ps. Elongatus, 1 Blue Ahli, 1 Red Kadanga, 1 Mel. Exasperatus, 1 metriaclima emmiltos, 1 Ancistrus.

14.5G 4 Neon Tetras.

Maybe a BN? I don't know what the PH or hardness of your water, but I have found mine to be very adaptable to water conditions. You could always just wipe the algae off during water changes, I only wiped off algae on the front of the tank, so it wasn't much trouble. I don't have to do that with the BN in the tank now.

My BNs are good for Mbuna, they even bred twice. I must say though that the male BN mysteriously "dissapeared" a couple of weeks ago. I found bits of his skin on the sand during the next water change. I think my big red zebra male was responsible

Sorry for your BN desiredusername.

I'm hesitant about BN's and other pleco's as I can't find one that I find aesthetically pleasing, that would also fit the tank conditions. Sorry to all the Pleco lover's out there - but the appeal is lost on me.

I am leaning more towards a Syno. Multipunctatis, just because the coloration is nicer, and I figure if the catfish can get at the wasted food at the bottom, it'll help control the algae growth.

The algae is not a problem in my tank, I just want to ensure my plants can compete for nutrients etc.

72G Bowfront. 1 Sunshine Peacock, 2 Yellow Labs, 1 Ps. Elongatus, 1 Blue Ahli, 1 Red Kadanga, 1 Mel. Exasperatus, 1 metriaclima emmiltos, 1 Ancistrus.

14.5G 4 Neon Tetras.

MBuna naturally eat algae. Skip a feeding or two and I bet your tank will clean itself lol. Another options are Malaysion trumpet snails (MTS) but i dont recommend this idea. Hard shells make them hard for the fish to eat and reproduce in excessive. Good news is they disapear under the sand in the day. If you go this path you must remove some monthly to keep them in check or your bioload skyrockets.

There are some smaller plecos that would go nicely but plecos also produce loads of poop. Thats allways fun to clean up.

Really the MBuna should keep ahead of it especielly those demasoni. Mine wont lay off the algae. Before i feed the tank hes allready got a fat stomach from eating allday.

I recently noticed my Mbuna nibbling at the algae on the rocks, AND they are not as hyperactive at feeding time....as I assume they are pretty full from the algae.

I think this seals the deal. I'm gonna get a syno cat just to clean up the food that doesn't get eaten during a feeding, keep the tank bottom clean.

No pleco or algae eater needed.

Thanks all!

72G Bowfront. 1 Sunshine Peacock, 2 Yellow Labs, 1 Ps. Elongatus, 1 Blue Ahli, 1 Red Kadanga, 1 Mel. Exasperatus, 1 metriaclima emmiltos, 1 Ancistrus.

14.5G 4 Neon Tetras.

Glad to help. Not to complicate things or nit pick but i noticed your signature. you have 2 Demasoni. These fish are serious agressive. Best to keep them single or 15+. They have serious issues with anything striped and they arnt gentle. Just thought i would mention this before the 2 became 1 and you dont know why.

Hey,

Yeah....that's a bit of a story.

The reason I have 2 listed is because my original 7 were starved to death by my venustus.

I actually have to update my signature - I have one left. The last one to die still would not eat - it was so stressed by the venustus (which has been out of the tank for over a week) that it would not come out of the caves to eat?!? I tried dropping pellets in the cave, but it just sat there??

That's why I am now considering a different species. I don't really want 12-15 of any one species in my tank, so I am probably going to move to Socolofi or something - should I get rid of the 1 surviving demasoni? Its a tiny little guy, and is now ultra passive as it too was traumatized - but it is the only one of the seven that kept eating despite the stress.

72G Bowfront. 1 Sunshine Peacock, 2 Yellow Labs, 1 Ps. Elongatus, 1 Blue Ahli, 1 Red Kadanga, 1 Mel. Exasperatus, 1 metriaclima emmiltos, 1 Ancistrus.

14.5G 4 Neon Tetras.

venustus are evil things. the Demasoni would be fine solo in a crowd as long as its not with any other species striped like it is. he wotn notice socolofi and the soc. shouldnt care about him either. Demasoni are controlable. the Venustrus im not so sure baout. i think they pick on anything willing to be picked on. my Demasoni is doing VERY well with my yellow labs/socolofi/acei 75g tank. I do have to confess though there is a barred yellow lab in there he does not liek at all. evidently he doesnt like bad quality either lol. anyway stay away from other barred fish and the Demasoni wont be an issue.

Sin in Style....I have learned the hard way.

I was lured in by the Venustus' good looks! It tried to play shy when it was first in the tank - but its true colours came out in full force!!!

Good to know that the Socolofi, Lab, Demasoni, Acei combo works well in your 75G - that's pretty much identical to what I want - except I have a Mpanga and I was debating 1 Blue Ahli instead of the Acei.

Funny enough, my LFS has a tank full of juvie venustus, and I can't imagine if some poor, unsuspecting mom or dad goes in there and gets one for little Johnny's aquarium for Christmas - yikes!

72G Bowfront. 1 Sunshine Peacock, 2 Yellow Labs, 1 Ps. Elongatus, 1 Blue Ahli, 1 Red Kadanga, 1 Mel. Exasperatus, 1 metriaclima emmiltos, 1 Ancistrus.

14.5G 4 Neon Tetras.

Deffinetly the worse case scenerio. Dropping that kind sky little fish in a community tank. a month later your wondering where the shark came from. Luckily i have a really good cichlid fish shop really close to me that warns about such things. so much so they have huge neon signs in the cichlid isle reading "Aggressive" then paper explaiing the situation. then each tank has a individual agression breakdown. This prolly took the owner all of an hour to print and put up. I cant even imagin how many community fish it has saved.