black brush algae on moss

[Jrustandy]

hi...
can anyone tell me how to get rid of black brush algae from moss.


thank you

[whuntley]

Young SAEs.

Wright

[Jrustandy]

Young SAEs.

Wright

it seems they dont eat it, they prever eats the moss

[Green Baron]

There are many ways to remove BBA. Some recommend using Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2), while others recommend the blackout + water change treatment. If you can remove the moss or driftwood from the tank, then the blackout/shrimp treatment will also work. i.e. put the moss in a container, put in some shrimps and left it in a dark corner. After a week or two, all the BBA will be gone.

If you moss is not heavily infested, try manually removing the BBA or trim off those which are infested. If the moss is heavily infested with BBA, I suggest throwing them away and start from fresh.

You should also try to find out the cause of the BBA outbreak, which usually is due to too much light or lack of certain nutrients.

[Jrustandy]

thanks gan,
i will try to remove the moss first and do some water change reguraly.
i think the cause of BBA in my tank was lack certain nutrients and water parameter, because i never change water for 2 months.
i heard a treatment with cooper sulfate, have anyone try it before??


thanks

[timebomb]

thanks gan,
i will try to remove the moss first and do some water change reguraly.
i think the cause of BBA in my tank was lack certain nutrients and water parameter, because i never change water for 2 months.
i heard a treatment with cooper sulfate, have anyone try it before??


thanks

Jimmy, I've never tried copper sulfate but I would advise that you don't dose such chemicals into your tank unless you know for sure what you're doing. As Wright has recommended, juvenile SAEs are quite good at eating BBA. Take note that he said "young SAEs" as adult ones won't touch BBA. In any case, all SAEs, whether young or old, eat BBA only when there's an absence of fish food. In any case also, even in the absence of fish food, young SAEs will eat only new BBA growth. In other words, they won't eat the BBA that is already in existence in your tank. But as you have found out, SAEs, whether young or old, will also eat moss. That's a bummer, isn't it

All is not lost though. There are, as far as I know, 2 other species of fish which are better at eating BBA than SAEs. One is known as a Cigar Fish and the other is a Killifish called Florida Flag Fish. They are both quite aggressive but they will eat all BBA, whether young or old

The best way to deal with BBA, actually is to tweak the amount of CO2 in your tank. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself but according to this fellow, if you get the right amount of CO2, BBA won't appear in your tanks. I'm still wondering if I should subscribe to Tom's site

Loh K L

[Jrustandy]

Mr Loh, thank's for your suggestion. i will try not to feed my sae. because it is the only fish will eat BBA available in indo,i can not find cigar fish or Florida Flag Fish here.


thanks

[whuntley]

All is not lost though. There are, as far as I know, 2 other species of fish which are better at eating BBA than SAEs. One is known as a Cigar Fish and the other is a Killifish called Florida Flag Fish. They are both quite aggressive but they will eat all BBA, whether young or old

Loh K L

Hey KL,

I don't know what the cigar fish is, but my experience with Jordanella floridae, the American-Flag Fish* is that it will not eat BBA. They are great for hair and other stringy algae, but they never touched a lush growth I had in their tank. [I liked it, as it covered a 3' log with deep purple fur that rippled beautifully in the water currents.]

Wright
____________________
*There is no such thing as a Florida Flag Fish despite efforts of some unscrupulous dealers in that state to create a new commercial name. The common name for this fish has been used for over 100 years. The fish doesn't even faintly resemble the Florida Flag. The bright red stripes and blue shoulder area do look like an American flag. Originally found in FL, this pupfish actually lives all along our gulf coast in several other states, so it isn't even an exclusive FL native!.

[timebomb]

I don't know what the cigar fish is

Wright, the latin name for the Cigar fish is Anostomus anostomus. There used to be a picture of it in one of the posts here but it is no longer there when I checked just now.

As for the Jordanella floridae, they do eat BBA. I can testify to that as I saw them doing so with my own eyes. The fish has to be very hungry before they do that, of course.

Loh K L

[whuntley]

Aha!

I was conditioning them to breed, so they never got very hungry, and my big tank had loads of other plants they were clearly happy to consume.

The only starved floridae I have seen were in a local fish store. They had no plants or algae to eat, and I don't think they digest other food well without some veggies. They looked awful!

I even regularly fed mine blanched zucchini ends so they would leave other plants alone. No wonder harsh black algae wasn't consumed.

Wright

[Green Baron]

All these algae eating fishes will not eat algae if they have other more tasty food to eat

When I first put in a few mollies in my tank, I saw them pulling out and eating hair algae from my moss. After 2 months, they developed a taste for bloodworm, daphnia and brine shrimp and never touch algae again