richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) (01/17/90)
In article <9001152302.AA02272@sage.cc.purdue.edu> qnp@SAGE.CC.PURDUE.EDU (vinod kutty) writes: > > I am not sure if any algae eaters consume hair algae. Somehow, they >really seem to dislike the stuff. I don't know if Flying Foxes do or not >because I have been careful at preventing it! I guess I don't want to know if >they do. They are almost starved in my tank and they, being a little smarter >Chinese algae eater, know when I am approaching the tank with food. They >eat brine shrimp and black worms just like my dwarf cichlids do! WHen they >are really hungry, they nibble/browse over a lot of area. They, I think, >are really overrated algae eaters. Mollies probably do a better job! I agree. I bought 4 of them to assist in removing algae from places I couldnt get, like small anubias leaves. I chose them over the Chinese algae eaters because fo the latter's propensity for attacking other fishes slime coat, and over plecos because everybody knows you can't keep plecos alive. Well the flying foxes are almost worthless as algae eaters. They do make *some* contribution to removing algae from leaves but not much. I STILL have my 2 plecos I bought 2 months ago. They're doing a wonderful job of removing algae. Oh well. At least the f.foxes look neat.
dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) (01/17/90)
In article <24836@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: >and over plecos because everybody knows you >can't keep plecos alive. Having heard this comment from others, too, I am truly puzzled. My wife and son keep a goldfish and a pleco in a 2.5 gallon tank (which had only a corner filter until I added a sponge filter a short time ago). No heater, and we keep the house no higher than 64 during the day, 58 at night. The pleco has been alive for a year. (Of course, he doesn't move much so maybe I just *think* he's been alive for a year :-).) Did the fish store lie to us when we bought this fish? It sure looks like a pleco to me, but I'm fairly ignorant. If it is a pleco, and they are so hard to keep, and they do need warm water, why is the fish alive? (And happy, so far as I can tell; keeps his fins at full display (whenever he isn't in spot so tight that he can't.) Are there hardier pleco varieties? -- Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office Internet: s-dorner@uiuc.edu UUCP: {convex,uunet}!uiucuxc!dorner IfUMust: (217) 244-1765