Green Algae

[Valerie]

I have a live plant in my betta bowl and lots of green algae. Anyone know of a way i can get rid of the algae without killing the plant?

[Corndog]

DOH! The plant has the algae . . .

I read that keeping the bowl completely out of sunlight will reduce algae growth. I also read to clean off a small amount of algae at a time.

[Valerie]

thanks, I'll try cleaning it just a little at a time.

[Sharon]

What size is this bowl?
Does it have filtration?

[Hope]

there are alot of options for ground feeders/suckers.... I have plecos, but in the past i've also had cat fish, and crabs....

Femals are supposed to be friendly too, so mixing her with other species is no where near as risky as mixing males with other species, and even some mellow tempered males can coexist nicely with some short finned species.

I would deffinantly do your research though, becuase crabs can nip....

but i don't see a potentional problem with a cat fish, mines only about and inch by one half inch big

I also think there are small frogs that eat algea.... they may be a nice addition ....



GOOD LUCK

[Sharon]

Again, what size is this bowl?

Bettas are generally territorial in anything under 5 gallons.
If this bowl/tank is filtered aswell as heated, i would recomend a couple of ottocinclus to take care of any algae problems. Only if it is 5 gallons or larger.
If it is a 1 gallon bowl, it needs to be cleaned once a week, 100 percent.

[Vegan Kitty Mommy]

Please be careful with cat fish and with frogs...both have been known to kill fish and bettas are not the strongest swimmers to begin with!

[Allison Turner]

I'm pretty sure Betas aren't known to attack algae eaters. I have a beta myself, and though they are aggressive, the guy at the Walmart said that there are many species of fish that a beta would do well with.

[Valerie]

Bettas are betta agressive. They're great community fish with one problem. Sometimes other figh will nip at the males' flowing fins. I've had four Bettas and none ever cared to share space with another species.

[FluffyCat]

They sell algae removal stuff at the pet stores...I use it in my tank and it doesn't harm plants or fish, works like a charm too.

[Vegan Kitty Mommy]

Never trust the guy at WalMart!

[Melissa McMahon]

Out of curiosity, is this live plant a bottom dwelling plant or is it one of those "peace lily" things, because if it's one of the peace lily plants, you should remove the betta asap, and get it into a minimum one gallon tank with proper surface area. If it happens to be a bottom dwelling plant, there are a couple things you can do. You can either nuke your tank [empty the tank completely of water], and try your best to wipe the algae away gently, or you can get a gravel vacuum and siphon out no more than 25% of the water while cleaning the substrate [bottom covering] and attempting to dislodge some of the algae. Also you can do that after reaching into the tank, [bettas do bite but it's only a little nip and it won't hurt you and it won't hurt him if your hands are clean of both debri and all soap residue] and gently rubbing away the algae. after siphoning be sure to replace the water with clean aged water.

[Dwayne Powell]

This is Otoclinus Affnis. At first glance it looks like a plecostomus of some sort, but it's not really. These guys thrive on algae, and they don't get all that large either. Not aggressive at all. I tried to find some when I got the CAE's that Bams talked about...