hi everyone i am new here but i already have a question how do i keep my algae alive in my tank,i have 2 oscar a 3 inch and 5 inch, before i have an algae eater but i always have a bad luck on algae eater i mean every time i put one in, in a couple days the AE simply dies, not sure why,my guess is starvation every time i drop food my 2 oscar will simply eat all of it in a matter of seconds. I want to keep an algae eater in my tank cause therr very helpful,they clean up the green stuff. pls help me


thanks

Well first off hello and welcome to ofl

I have never owned a algae eater myself but my best sugestion would be to put in algaee pellets i put those in every now and then for my snails so i know they dont starve lol. When i put them in my oscar tries to eat them but spits it right back out.......maybe he dosent like the taste idk. But ya hikari algae pellets may brake your curse. Also how big is your tank?

All fish that you keep are pets. There isn't a fish out there that will happily clean your tank for you without...

1) Wanting to be fed
2) Pooing

If you can see your fish through the glass then there is probably not enough algae to feed the algae eater.

Even when they do eat your algae they still poo and contribute to the bioload on the tank.

If you can find out exactly what kind of fish it is we could help with more advice. Wikipedia will give you a list of fish commonly referred to as 'Algae Eaters'. They almost certainly need feeding with some kind of sinking algae pellet.

Be careful though some of the loricariid catfishes of South America will outgrow your oscars and need a lot of room.

What is your current set up? tank size? Filters, water parameters etc?

Welcome to the site.

Oh also i missed that are we talking about a pleco a chinese algaee eater or what be a lil bit more specific please

welcome to OFL.
Are we talking about suckermouthed armoured catfish aka plecos or "just" an algae eater?
I suppose it's pleco's you are talking about.
Plecos can survive under very harsh conditions and will eat any scraps that the other fish drop.
They also are ditrinivores, wich means they actually eat s#it...
So starvation is not very likely, unless you buy a fragile underfed pleco.

Some plecos will clean the algae from your tank, but with the 7 i had ,only one does a decent job of algae cleaning. But these algae will never be enough for a healthy pleco and they will need an addition diet as well.
Plus they need driftwood in the tank, for they need the tannins from the woodraspings to digest their food properly.
Do you have some driftwood for your fish?

Best way to get a pleco to eat is to feed it at night when the O's are asleep.
Wait a few hours after lights out and drop in some sinking algae wafers and see if the pleco takes those.
Matt's advice is very good, nothing beats the Hikari pleco wafers and they got all my plecos to eat the wafers, while they simply refused any other brands i tried before that.

Nowadays i feed a quarter of a zuchinni at a time and i attach that to a stone ,that's placed near the plecos cave.
The oscars will not be interrested in the zuchinni, and the pleco will eat in peace.
You can also try potatoe, cucumber, banana, couliflower, but in general zuchinni is your best bet.
Here's one of mine eating the zuchinni:


Until she'll be so full, that she looks like this, but keeps eating.



And i'd like to see the answers to agrajag's questions, that will help us help you the best way we can!

I suspect one of your oscars may be killing your algae eaters. I have a tiger oscar that took out every tank mate he had within two weeks of adding him to the community and he was only 3 1/2". His last victim was the small pleco I had in there. For some reason I felt I needed an algae eater so I figured I'd get a large 12" pleco (my oscar was 5" at the time) and within a week he killed him. I'm not entirely sure how he does it cause he kills them at night, but I woke up to the pleco in the corner bent like a bananna with 3/4's of his back fin chewed off. He was still alive so I put him in a different tank but he didn't make it. The short of it is: my tiger is by himself, happy as can be and no more fish are dying. Good Luck!

All oscars are different, and indeed the aggression may go both ways.
Oscars killing plecos, and the other way around.
I heard horrorstories of plecos sucking on the oscars slime coat and killing him that way.
Adequate size for both fish and a carefull consideration of the Oscars temperament may be needed.
Too small a pleco can get eaten and get stuck in your oscars throath, thus killing both fish.
My oscars do not show any interest in the big plecos, nor the other way around.

But were still speculating here, for it may be a chinese algae eater as well, and those may end up like this:

No threat for the oscar, just a big snack.

Hi, I have two bristlenose catfish in with the oscars to take care of housekeeping. They are about 4 inches long. I set up logs and ornaments at the back so that they have a small corridor that they can pass through up and down without being harrassed by my three big oscars. I drop algae wafers directly into their corridor each day when I feed the gutsies blood worms so that they don't try to get the vegies, because they will eat them if they get the chance!
Cheers! Sharyn

Welcome to the site !

First, we will go with the assumption that you are discussing Plecos,

Second, with that said, Noddy is the best person on this site to help with Plecos (in my opinion).

Third, this is my past experience. I have a 120 gallon tank with 2 oscars and a jack dempsey. I have been through 4 plecos of various sizes. Noddy's advise has allowed my current 10" pleco to survive wonderfully in the tank.

We would like to know your tank size. That is important to make sure there you are not overstocked.

I lost 3 plecos due to the Oscars "beating" up on the pleco. My first problem was the size of the pleco compared to the oscars. A pleco bigger (by couple of inches) than the oscars was a huge benefit. There has to be hiding places for the pleco also. The driftwood was key in my tank as well. Make sure your tank is fully cycled too. I had to go through a variety of food items until I found what mine would eat. The algae disks were of no help because the oscars always beat the pleco to them - no matter when I put them in or what I hid them in. I finally was able to feed him raw potatoes, then zuchini and then seedless cucumber.

They are very tough fish and will keep the tank nice and clean. Except for the fact that they poop... a lot !



Otherwise... I love mine and just purchased a 2nd one for my feeder tank!

first off i am a total newbie my passion is RC trucks, i wanna try something so i got an aquarium anyways,my algae eater is pleco,tank size is 55gal with 2 oscar,i have 2 over head filter if that's what you call it no idea on water parameters,i do partial water changed twice a month and i put anti chlorine(followed instruction on the bottle). i guesss i have a healthy tank.

I use to love racing RC trucks! Very cool. Had a RC Toyota Tacoma that kicked butt!!

Anyway, you need to buy a water test kit - liquids only - no strips. Then you need to test your water weekly. I personally do twice a week due to the fish I have - ie Pleco! Water changes for me are weekly. I don't know what the anti-chlorine stuff is but the best, highly recommended by most everyone on this site, stuff to use is called Prime. It rocks!

How big are the Oscars? I think you will find that you are going to start running into issues as they get bigger because the tank isn't big enough for 2 oscars - let alone adding a pleco. Sorry to bear the bad news but you may already know that. Craigslist has tons of tanks .. cheap !!

Noddy... how am I doing here?

Doing fine,B.
Good advice.
Ionly like to add that guessing the water quality is not enough to keep your fish healthy.
You really need to get a testset.
I have 2 oscars and 2 plecos in a 180Gl tank, and still do a 50% weekly waterchange to keep my water in check.
55 Gl will only be just big enough for one oscar WITH NO TANKMATES!
Keeping 2 oscars and a pleco you will needa 150Gl+ tank, imo.
And you'll still be looking at weekly waterchanges...

Besides that,i'd love to see an RC truck thread, i don't remember we ever had a thread like that.