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Ordinarily, I'd know in advance what I wanted for an aquarium, but in this case, I have a little puzzle to solve.

The puzzle in question centres upon an aquarium that has acquired a less than delightful infestation of blanket weed. My original plan was to find a Siamese Algae Eater to help deal with it, but as availability of these fishes is patchy at best in my area, I've had to dream up a possible "Plan B" in case the first choice is not available.

Now if I were able to get hold of some Limia species, these might fit the bill. But, again, availability is likely to be a big issue, which is a pity because some Limias are lovely fishes. So, my question is this.

Among the "commoner" livebearers (i.e., ones that are likely to be available without my having to launch a long distance shopping expedition), are there any that will munch upon my blanket weed?

I did toy briefly with the idea of Mollies, but that choice could be problematic, not least because I don't know in advance if they'll touch this algal pestilence.

So, anyone out there had blanket weed and had livebearers munch upon it? If so, let me know, and tell me which livebearers did the job for you!



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

For us non-Brits...

"Blanket weed"?

As far as livebearers go, the mollies I've had did munch a bit on most types of algae, especially if there was no other food available. The other common species I've kept (swords, platys, guppies) didn't really touch the stuff.

If you can get a hold of one, and you aren't averse to killifish, obtain a American Flagfish. They'll go through algae like a combine through a cornfield.

Joe Potato

Blanket weed is a generic name for all of the many types of filamentious algae. Sometimes it has the appearance of fine wispy hair growing off the side of the pool, other times it forms a thick, choking candy floss type mass that can choke plants or float at the water surface.

Almost sounds like cladophora. I like the idea of the American fish riding to rid the redcoats of the green menace... I would definitely give the flag fish a chance on this critter but don't discount the common molly. Flag fish are very good on hair algae and there has been reports that it will munch brush algae. I have used mollies to graze back hair algae with good success.



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"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
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Jeez , if you want Siamese flying foxes, you can have 5 of mine!

I saw a batch of tiny babies the other week. It looks like there are new batches in supply in the uk again.

A small armada of amano shrimp should shift it too, but they wont eat it in preferenc eot other algae, so this approach might only work if you dont have too many other kinds of algae available in the tank. Cory friendy compared to most other algae eaters too. No need to add aquarium salt for the long term health like some mollies either. The cories would hate the salt.