Elaine T wrote:
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 savage
lyattackingit.Ihadfinally
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.
Yes, it looks very much like a variant of Labeo variegatus, which is the
one I have:
http://www.thatfishshop.com/findex/f...variegatus.htm
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.
Believe it or not, they had an offer the day I bought it. Buy 2 for £28!
Fortunately, I just bought the one.
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.
My experience totally agrees.
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.
I definitely need some critter to clean the BBA from the leaves as most
leaves are affected, almost imperceptibly though. The PO4 is under
control. They say to prune all leaves that are infected at this stage.
If I did that, the only leaf in the tank left would be the Water Sprite.
Do you know the mechanism SAE use to prise away BBA? I still can't
believe that anything could have the equipment to get rid of this stuff!
Nikki