Things You'll Need:
- Plecostomus
- Snails
- Algae
- Freshwater Aquarium
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Step 1
Albino Bristlenose Plecostomus (Catfish).Add a hungry catfish into an aquarium where they will quickly eat up any algae.
Catfish won't eat a diet of pure algae. They will need to be fed daily. On top of daily feedings they will continuously graze on algae.
Larger aquariums can be rid of algae in basically no time, by the hungry mouths of just a few Plecostomus catfish.
Hypostomus Plecostomus is a species of freshwater catfish that has a specialized mouth that is perfect for eating algae.
Ancistrus or bristlenose plecostomus are a small species of pleco. These fish are perfect for any sized tank, starting from 10 gallons and up.
Larger plecos that would be perfect for large aquariums holding over 100 gallons of water, are the Hypostomus Plecostomus fish. -
Step 2
Trumpet snails like these, don't usually eat enough algae.Add hungry snails into your algae filled fish tanks.
Most snails love to eat algae.
A group of 20 hungry pond snails can eat up mostly all of the algae in a 20 gallon tank overnight.
It's not easy to get rid of pond snails, so unless you are willing to have them permanently inhabit your aquarium, it is best not to add any snails into the aquarium to begin with.
Large snails like apple snails will eat all of the algae that they can find. Apple snails will also eat any and ALL live aquatic plants.
Not all species of snails are a good choice for controlling algae in a freshwater aquatic environment. Some species of snails that don't eat large amounts of algae include :
* Killer Snails
* Mystery Snails
* Rabbit Snails
* Trumpet Snails
The best choice of snail to use for algae control in a planted aquarium is a combination of the physa acuta pond snail and the planorbis species of pond snails. Together they will maintain your live aquatic plants by eating all of the algae and trimming any dead spots off of your plants. They won't eat any healthy plants either.
If you want to add more color to your aquarium, the planorbis species of pond snails comes in the following colors : brown, dark and light orange, red, white, green, blue and pink.
Snails, catfish, crayfish, shrimp and fish can't survive by eating algae alone. They need to be fed other types of food as well!
For more information about feeding catfish and snails, please see the resources section of this article. -
Step 3
Shrimp graze on algae, but they won't eat it all up!Add algae grazing fish and shrimp to any algae covered aquarium to help keep the algae in check.
Fish such as the livebearing molly and the brackish water scats have been known to graze on or peck at algae but no amount of these fish could never rid an aquarium of algae.
Aquatic freshwater shrimp also graze on algae but will not completely eliminate it from an aquarium.
Plecos and snails are by far the best natural method for controlling algae in a freshwater aquarium.
