Pleco Algae Eater
The term algae eater refers to any aquarium organism that eats algae which can help you keep on top of algae.
Pleco algae eater. If it has a gold stripe on top of the black stripe it is not a siamese algae eater. The best algae eaters. The truth is that they re highly specialized catfish living out their lives in swift streams where their sucker mouth is a necessity to avoid being displaced.
A true siamese algae eater fish will have a long body with a ragged looking black horizontal stripe on the sides of the fish. The rubber lip pleco is an ideal fish if you want an algae eater that will not outgrow your aquarium. However you cannot count on algae eaters to take over all of your cleaning duties.
You still need to keep up on water changes and your other maintenance. For instance some plecos rely heavily on a diet that contains drift wood and some so called algae eaters are not herbivores at all. The common pleco is often sold to the unwary who think of them only as an algae eater.
They are an extremely efficient algae eater because once i had a problem dealing with sudden bloom of algae growth in my aquarium and soon after i introduced the fish all the sides and corners were swept clean of algae. The plecocostomus or pleco is actually a type of algae eater or more accurately a family of algae eaters. These fleshy appendages stick out around head and the lips of bristelnose plecos.
Pleco originated from the rivers of south america and domesticated in home aquariums as pets. The reason for this is because it s completely circumstantial i wouldn t offer a common pleco to a customer that has a relatively small aquarium in the same way i wouldn t offer snails or shrimps to those that have a large aggressive community. Many species of pleco and other algae eating fish have very specific care requirements that you will have to meet.
The pardalis and the disjunctivus are excellent algae eaters especially when they are young the downside is that they both grow to over 1 foot long in quite a short time most certainly under a year given the right care requirements. It is commonly confused with rubber plecos and some pet stores even sell one as the other. Well no there actually isn t a correct answer to this question that i could say right now i can t offer the best algae eater.
The siamese algae eater fish will grow to about 4 or 5 inches in length and are best suited for tanks 20 gallon fish tanks and larger. The rubber lip pleco is distinguishable by the spots on its head and it will not grow past 4 5 inches. Combine this with a huge appetite and you will see exactly why they made our list of the best algae eating fish.
Both freshwater and marine aquariums feature a number of diverse algae eaters. The bristlenose looks in general contour except for its bristles like most plecos.
