Randy PhxVet wrote:
i have been keeping fish for over 30 years and have had a small animal
practice for 20 years. i do know a little about fish and i will tell
you that giving your fish a live treat of brine shrimp or chopped worms
(or whatever) is O.K. i treat my 240 gallon malawi tank about once
every other week with live brine shrimp. in the wild they eat other
things besides algae. i have been to africa twice and actually watched
the fish in their natural habitat.

I feel the need to clarify as I feel you're directing this post to me. If
you re-read my posts, you will note that I often said that occasional
ingestion of insects or the like should not cause issue as in the wild
these are occasionally eaten along with the algae. My posts were in
response to another who seemed to be advocating a high protein/fat diet
instead of a primarily herbivorous diet, which I do not feel would be in
the best interest of the fish. I am an advocate of trying to replicate the
feeding habits and diet that the fish would have in the wild. In the case
of algae eaters, this would mean a herbivorous diet with the occasional
"treat" of things like brine shrimp or daphnia would most replicate their
natural diet. I'd also say treats of algae covered rocks would be welcome
as then they could practice their feeding habits as well. Since the pet
food industry makes it easy to replicate herbivorous diets with various
spirulina products and so on, I don't see any reason not to do it (as
opposed to say a mollusc eating fish, where it might be difficult to find
sufficient snails/molluscs to feed without breaking the bank, so one has
to settle for a flake food substitute not really based on a mollusc
eater's wild diet).