On Mar 16, 11:05�am, atomweaver wrote:
Larry Blanchard wrote :





Tara Legale wrote:

"Reel McKoi" wrote
You may want to think about trading him in for a few otos aka
otocinclus (sp?) . *They stay small and eat only algae.

Thank you for the tip. *I live in Wisconsin and I'll call Foster &
Smith tomorrow and see if they have them in their local store to buy.
* I have a co-worker at work with a tank, I can probably bring the
Pleco there as I'm sure F&S won't trade it.

As someone else said, be sure you have some algae, although I have
seen mine feed on algae wafers. *I guess it's a case of some will,
some won't.

You may or may not ever see the otos. *Even with 4 or more, mine tend
to hide and only come out when it's really dark. *In other tanks, I've
had them come out in the daytime.

Also, be aware that otos are infamous for dying with no reason.

I have otos in a 10 gal, and they do well on cleaning the glass. *Others
I have heard prefer the flying fox as a more durable algae eater than
otos. *My LFS has a source for robust otos, it seems.
* In another tank with a thread algae issue, I recently tried a trio of
amano shrimp. *Holy Cow! *Do those guys love thread algae. *They had the
tank tidied up in a week and a half. *I haven't had an issue with algae
on the glass in that tank, so I'm not certian if they're helpful there or
not. So long as your tank doesn't have invert predators, and you have a
separate hospital tank for your fish (inverts don't tend to hold up well
when you medicate a tank), I'd look into them.

DaveZ- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I *loved* my Amano Shrimp. However, after setting up a larger tank for
my 6 yr old male Betta to have for himself, they decided to climb up
and out of this tank. The top was set up differently and the cord
fromt he heater is thicker and made a space.
One morning after waking my daughter for school we walked past the
tanks and she said OOO....somethig's ont he floor Ma, it looks like a
dead shrimp. = O Oh no! It was. So sad. All crispy. I later found
it's buddy dried inside the cabinet (I have a few Betta tanks inside
the cabinet of my 75g).
I loved those little dudes. They did such a great job on algae
control. They kept it gone, that's for sure. They kept my baby Java
fern's completely clean without ever harming them.
The only shop I could get them at has recently closed down (I just
found this out yesterday).
What a bummer it was to lose them. = /