Nikki Casali wrote:
Elaine T wrote:
Nikki Casali wrote:
OK, so moving on to plan B. I am finding the control of BBA extremely
time consuming. It's the most tenacious algae. Hell, I don't even get
green spot algae anymore. BBA grows very slowly, but it still bugs me
as it excludes me from keeping very slow growing plants.
I have a spare 110 litre aquarium I wish to move all my fish into
from the 330 litre, temporarily. Given that the main tank will have
no fish in it, how far can I push a treatment to guarantee a kill of
BBA and still give the plants a fighting chance? For example, how
many days of blackout would be required, 3, 7, 14 days?? I presume
I'd stop all CO2 for that period.
Plan C is to strip the tank.
Nikki
I missed plan A so apologies if someone already suggested this. Is
there some reason you cannot find or keep Crossocheilus siamensis
(Siamese algae eaters or SAE)? They really, truly do eat BBA and will
keep it under control.
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/cyprinid.html describes the fish.
The article is 10 years old, and now there is a demand for the true
SAE so they are not difficult to find in LFS.
Oooh, it's complicated!
I have 1 Ruby Shark (4 years), 1 Redtail Shark (4 years) and 1 Harlequin
Shark (4 months). They are all mortal enemies. No one told me about the
sheer pathological aggression of the Harlequin when I got him. They just
said he was the best algae eater around. My 2 older sharks just about
tolerated each other. One became nocturnal.
When I introduced the Harlequin everything was fine until 2 weeks later
when all hell broke loose. One morning I found the Redtail shivering in
one corner, absolutely terrified! Mr Harlequin had gained enough
confidence within 2 weeks to begin savagely attacking it. I had finally
found a fish more aggressive than a Redtail! The nocturnal Ruby Shark
wasn't stupid and decided to hibernate in one tight corner for most of
24 hours. One day I even came across the Harlequin with its sucker mouth
clasped against one of my Angelfish. What?!
I removed the Harlequin and Redtail Sharks to the quarantine tank, with
a divider, permanently. I am now left with the less aggressive Ruby
Shark in the main tank.
Would the Ruby Shark tolerate a Crossocheilus siamensis? I'm running out
of quarantine tanks though!
Nikki
If your "harlequin shark" has a suckermouth, it is not a relative of C.
siamensis, L. bicolor (redtail shark) or E. frenatus (ruby shark). None
of these fish have suckermouths. It is most likely a dreaded Chinese
algae eater (CAE) or Gyrinocheilus aymonieri.
http://www.petresources.net/fish/cyprinid/gyr_aym.html CAE get very
aggressive as they grow, especially towards similarly shaped fish. They
have been rumored to feed on slimecoats of other fish as they age, thus
the angelfish sucking behavior.
If you look at some more pictures of G. aymonieri and that's indeed what
your "harlequin shark" is, I would return it to LFS. It will never be
suitable for a community tank. If they complain, just leave it anyway -
they'll figure out something to do with it. After all, they gave you
the bad advice in the first place.
Now, as for ruby shark and SAE, I've personally kept 3 SAE and one
flying fox (E. kalopterus) together and things were fine. The flying
fox chased the SAE around some, but always got distracted because there
were 3 of them. I think of Flying foxes and ruby sharks as similarly
aggressive with redtails as the psycho killer member of the family.
So...What I would personally try is 3 or 4 SAE - the largest you can buy
- if you have the tank room. My best guess is that the ruby shark will
most likely chase the SAE around, but the aggression will be spread
amongst the SAE and they will be OK. But this is only a guess based on
my flying fox experience!
Hopefully someone else will post who has actually tried ruby sharks and
SAE together.
--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__