For about sixth months i had been faced with the worst battle of an introduced pest that i have ever seen in my life. I imported some Rams...with them came i presume from their guts black algae. Black algae, which is actually part of the red algae family (figure that one out) is probably one, if not the worst one out there. In recent years i had heard and read about it taking over more and more ppls tanks. Complete tear downs wouldnt rid the tank of the stuff. Often it is passed in the form of spores from the fish, plants etc.
I thought i would write some of my findings as i might be able to help someone else before they are attacked. First off, ill try and describe what it looks like. Its often refered to as black hair brush algae. It basically looks like very fine tuffs of black hair. If you disturb it, the spore enter the water and freely flow around the tank. So simply put...removing a leaf or an item covered will not help it. This stuff was growing like mad in the filter which i had assumed would be a problem in the first place. It quickly takes over the tank. Now if you have one like mine...over six years old since first set up...150 gallons...and packed with some rare and delicate plants...you will have to move fast. The first month of the attach i saw very little of it. I increased water changes and filter clean outs in hope that the plants would be able to overcome the growth of the pest. Well it didnt, and after only about three weeks the algae had taken over the plants and nearly chocked to death the entire tank. I cut like mad, and lost about 50% of what i had. So after trying every method on earth i decided to chemically clean the tank....bad idea, i lost more plants...mostly fine leafed delicate ones, and it did not touch the algae!
I was about ready to give up when i sat down and really did my homework on this stuff. It turns out there is actually a fish that will not only eat the stuff...but it will devour it! The siamese algae eater. Its one that in my area i often see, but even more so, see incorrectly. If you really do your homework on this fish, youll find what i found. There is basically three fish that are sold under this name. 1) The real siamese algae eater. 2) The false siamese algae eater 3) Flying foxes. In my local stores i found lots of them for sale....none that were the real thing however!!! This went on for months infact....in the meantime..day to day the tank was getting worse. After about three months i found some. At my witts end i managed to find a tank full of them. A little hefty in price but i was desperate...so i said to myself...this is your last chance...and i purchased all 18 of them!
These things once in the tank literally started eating it immediately! Within days it was gone. It has now been two months in time and im happy to report that there is no black algae in my tank. My plants are well on the rebound...and i have 18 very large siamese algae eaters lol!!!
Sorry this is one big run on sentence...but i wanted to shed some light on the topic. I will include a link for anyone who is also suffering in silence as to the proper identification of these amazing fish. Currently some are now about three inches in length. They are in with small fish such as cardinals and i have had zero problems with them. They are busy, lively and great looking. Good luck to anyone that has the same problems....but i give you my word...here is your cure
http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/
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