Habitat - Indoor :: Algae Eaters Besides Plecos

[nickyds23]

Since most people on this site say not to get plecos due to the fact that they're plated or something, I was wondering if there are any algae eating fish that aren't plated and thus less dangerous to a turtle if the turtle happens to eat it.
Any ideas?

[actorial]

i have plecos in my tank and my turtle actually leave it due to the size of the plecos get a bigger size one and after awhile of bite on the plecos from ur turtle, they will give up cause there is no reaction of the plecos and they got bored.

alternative can try chinese algae eater. youtube for it and you will know how it look like. quite small at first...so quite a easy target for turtle. so yah, think through it

Cheers!!

[Daniel3507]

no matter the size of the pleco the turtle will still try and eat it or mess with it. i had a pleco that was bigger than my turtle and he just took bites out of the pleco. i eventually found him with the tail of the pleco in his mouth swimming around dragging the pleco around. really all the algae eaters i have tried including snails didnt really do much. i didnt notice much algae gone and they just got eaten

[actorial]

for me my plecos are quite aggressive so they are able to protect themselves...pick them carefully when buying them...i got mine after i stared at a tank of plecos for 15 mins. look at the characters of the plecos and pick the most active and aggressive one should be fine. mine had been in since Emil and Gmil are in the 50 gallon tank, turtles just swim pass and push it sometimes or when turtle are near and stare at the plecos, plecos will just swim away. quite cute to see that happen.

good luck in introducing plecos to ur turtle!! hope everything goes well for u like me

Cheers!

[jenaero]

I second the vote for chinese algae eaters. They're super fast and they're really good at keeping things clean.

[queenjane]

Try apple snails... they will eat poo and algae both, and when they're done with their job, your turtle can eat them as well.

[Sassamo]

I put red rams horns in with Sass, if she doesn't eat them she crushes their shells and spits out their bodies for later... What a crazy turtle I have...
I haven't really had an alge issue in my tank yet, when I had fish in there(before getting Sass) I had a pleco and snails and still had too scrub alge off the tank.

[queenjane]

I had algae issues only when the tank was near a window. (It's not anymore which keeps the temperatures in the tank from fluctuating.) Since I moved it, I've had no algae at all. I use Tetra brand algae-eater fluid stuff to eliminate the chance of algae growth. Occasionally, I have guppies or snails in the tank as well, and a really good filter.

My biggest issues is keeping the water from clouding due to leftover food.

[koreyleigh]

I had a Chinese algae eater who did some minimal cleaning -- more like maintainence to keep it from building it. He was very fast, but like people metioned above after a few weeks I didn't see him anymore

I then went back to Petsmart hoping to get another (or two) Chinese algae eaters after a week away left my tank prettttty green. They happened to be out but the woman recommended plecos. They were about the same price but were in a tank in the back area. She asked if I would like the big, small or medium ones. She offered to bring me out one medium and one large for comparison. HOLY MAMA the large was LARRRGE. Too large, even for me especially since I only have a ten gallon right now with 2 other little fish in it. I opted for 2 medium ones who definitely could hold their own to Hank in terms of size.

They've been in about a week now. I have a few places for them to hide/camouflage with which has been helping out plus they're extremely agile! When cleaning some of the water they were darting around like it was nobody's business. They have done more for the algae than the Chinese algae eater did, but they also poop a lot more. I like them a lot and would recommend them to you. Unlike the CAE, the plecos I have actually SEEN eating the algae.

I'm letting it outweigh the risk of him eating one or both of them someday. And for $2.19 a piece it seemed like a sweet deal for me.

[untsmurf]

I wouldn't recommend snails. They're slow and, in my experience, are often times scared to go out into the open because of the turtle. All the snails I tried to add ended up dying because they never came out of hiding.

[Rachel__23]

I had a pleco for over a year, it was about 6" last time I saw it. When I started feeding my turtle every other day, I realized that I hadn't seen the pleco in a while.... yah he must have been eaten, because he's no where to be found for the last several months. Before this, my turtle never even bothered the pleco, completely left him alone. I have had algae eaters before in fish tanks, they don't seem to do much. I do miss the pleco though, now I have to clean the algae.

[SenorProgrammer]

"I second the vote for chinese algae eaters"

It should be pointed out that what you want are actually siamese algae eaters (Crossocheilus siamensis). They are different than the chinese species (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri) in two notable ways: the siamensis devour black algae as well as blue-green and they're considerably less aggressive towards each other than the chinese version.

[Linus]

"I second the vote for chinese algae eaters"

It should be pointed out that what you want are actually siamese algae eaters (Crossocheilus siamensis). They are different than the chinese species (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri) in two notable ways: the siamensis devour black algae as well as blue-green and they're considerably less aggressive towards each other than the chinese version.

WARNING!

Both of the above listed species become killers once they reach about 7 inches. They will latch on to other fish and kill them, and they could do it to turtles on their limbs and cause serious damage.

[megcornell]

One truly tiny option is the otocinclus. They're pretty tiny at only 2 inches, but they are pretty finicky in terms of water quality so they may have trouble in a turtle tank.
That and I don't know how well they'd escape turtles. But at least they don't grow to be a foot long.

[ESG4Life]

Plecos have worked for me in my aquariums, and i actually got one to grow to 10-11 inches!! That thing was nuts! He ended up being the dominant fish..


Plecos may be hard to start off with and get stressed really easily when they are little.. So maybe you guys who put plecos with your turts and it didn't work, your fish could have been sick and got slow enough for turtle turtle to catch... IMO


I second sfmmfreaks warning, chinese and siamese algae eaters WILL attach themselves to your turtle!!! They are like a visible Parasite... Choose carefully!!!!!