On Sat, 16 Oct 2004 21:31:49 -0400, "Matt C."
wrote:

I just bought two oto's. The purpose is to remove some black beard algae.
Will they work? I wanted sae's but they didnt have any...
thanx,

If you have bba or black hair algae, your fight has just begun. I
know of no fish that will remove the stuff by themselves. A match
between tank lighting and plants is important. I discovered "Low
Light" plants during my 2 month fight. I removed all visible algae,
including some in the gravel, bought Low Light plants, was more
careful about feeding, added SAEs, and added a timer to limit the
hours of light. I won, but I don't know that any one change did the
trick. I now have 5 tanks ranging from 75 to 10 gallons and have had
the 75 gallon tank up for almost two years. It has been over 14
months since I saw a "hair" of algae, just some green spots on the
glass. I don't use plant fertilizer nor CO2.

dick