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hi guys

wat eats thread/spira gira

i realy dont care on the fish but somthing must eat it

P.S. a flying fox does not well mine does not.

what realy eats it

i want to get rid of it with out chemicals and i have reduced light and removing it by hand it so

any ideas

Amano shrimp sometimes eat it, siamese flying foxes will usually only eat it when no other food is present.

I have 2 SAE and they do a pretty good job of it. Very active fish and fun to watch. They remind me of little torpedos.

Florida Flag Fish do an excellent job of consuming hair algae.

Florida Flag Fish

Also, Amano Shrimp:

Amano Shrimp

You can also find Amano shrimp at Arizona Aquatic Gardens, but they don't offer quantity discounts. Plus, Florida Driftwood is very high on my recommendation list right now after my plant order I received from them last week (anybody who throws a $9 tiger lotus and 3 different swords in on a $43 assorted plant shipment is A++ in my book!).

Listen! Do you smell that?

Florida Flag Killies are on the top of my list for filamentous algae eaters... They actually seem to prefer it over flakes and other foods, and may eat softer aquarium plants if no algae is present (a trio I had destroyed my microswords). I've heard reports of them being aggressive (particularly the males), but I have never seen this myself. All the Florida Flag Killies I've kept have been peaceful, though the males tend to herd the females around and any other fish that slightly resembles a female, such as most livebearers.

Siamese Algae Eaters are also good at getting rid of filamentous algae, but like LHG said, they tend to get lazy when other food is available (meaning you might have to cut back on feeding them to make them hungry). I have a couple small SAEs in my 10 gallon Celestichthys margaritatus tank because some kind of stringy algae is taking over my Riccia, and these fish haven't done crap so far. I can't starve them too much because the danios need to eat more often, and I fear a Florida Flag Killie would intimidate them.

Amano Shrimp and other dwarf freshwater shrimp are just mediocre algae eaters in my experience, at least when it comes to filamentous algae. I have three Amanos and at least five or six Cherry Shrimp in the tank mentioned above, and they aren't making any impact on the algae. I see them picking at it, but I guess they aren't eating it as fast as it's growing.

If you have the room, I would definitely recommend Florida Flag Killies if you can find them. Unfortunately, their availability in many places is spotty at best - abundant some weeks while completely absent later. If your store doesn't have any in stock, ask if they can order them for you.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

The store I linked above has them in stock almost all the time. Better price than anywhere I've seen too.

Listen! Do you smell that?

Also, not to hijack the thread or anything, but I was wondering if anyone could identify this algae for me. It's bright green with a simple branching structure, the filaments are about 0.25 mm wide, and very stiff (they don't move in the current). It's sort of like the stuff the "moss" balls are made of. Any ideas?

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Looks like the stuff I had plaguing my breeding aquarium until the Florida Flag fish nuked it.

If you want it identifying to species level, you're looking at sending a sample to a specialist. There's literally hundreds of filamentous alga species in freshwater, of which Spirogyra is simply the best known.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

thanks for the help guys i think i will get some shrimps as i all ready have 1 of that type in a 180 liter tank so about 3 more on top should help. If this does not work i will have to get a flag fish. Any more ideas keep them comming

Natalie,

I could ID it to genus if I could look at it under a microscope... MAYBE now... (of course, it's harder when I've just packed my notes/sketches from my algae class)

If you take it and rub it between your fingers, does it feel slimy? Coarse? Kinda soft? Does it smell strongly?

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It feels very stiff and course, not slimy at all. I have some old school microscope from the 30s, and if I can find some of the algae here at home I'll try to take a picture of it using the scope.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Here's a picture of it at 100x magnification. The "stems" appeared to be made of only a single cell between the joints.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Hi Natalie:

Unfortunately I can not help you with the scientific classification of the algae I experienced or better - still experience some of it in one of my tanks. Coarse feeling, well structured body, rather odorless and stiff. I simply remove it from the tank by hand and it works very well. Not a very prolific grower (at least not the species that I have) and it is in a breeder with just the breeding pair and lots of plants. I suggest swift removal by hand until the species is properly characterized allowing for specific action. Hope it works for you

I'm going to guess it's Cladophora for now. I don't have any of my notes here with me now... Pithophora is similar. It's way too big to be a cyanobacterium.

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Thanks for the identification... So it is indeed possible that this stuff could be one of those "moss" balls turned invasive? It naturally, forms a dense shrub-like structure on its own, and if I took it and rolled it into a round shape it would look exactly like one of the moss balls.

Whatever it is, the Siamese Algae Eaters I put in the tank don't seem to be touching it, so I went and manually removed as much as I could and ended up effectively destroying my Riccia "bushes" in the process. Now I have the algae-free Riccia and Christmas Moss in a breeder net in the tank, which looks kind of crappy.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Here's a clump I pulled out a few days ago... I'm still trying to get as much of the Riccia out as possible because I'm too thrifty to throw any of it away.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

From what I'm reading, yeah it's definitely possible. :\ Looks like "moss balls" are one I probably one thing I won't try out...

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