sirsboon

Ok, what is the best alge eatter to buy for a 10 gallon tank?

Isabella

10 gallon tank is a small tank so you don't have very much choice. The best and smallest algae eaters that I know of are Otos (Otocinclus Affinis). They're also very delicate so they need good water quality all the time. They can't be kept in overstocked tanks. What do you already have in your 10 gallon tank? Otos need to be kept in groups.

Another option would be snails for a small tank. They eat algae too.

sirsboon

Unfortunately, the tank is probably overstocked already. It is our first tank, and I think we went a little overboard on fish. Right now, there is 3 Dalmatian mollies, a sliver molly, a golden molly, some kind of a catfish(), and three white skirt tetras. There is also a plecostomus but we bought him with our very first set of fish, about 2 months ago, and no one told us how big they would get. We are now buying a 75 gallon tank (in addition) and plan to move it to the larger tank once it is set up and cycled. Now we just need to replace it for alge purposes. I think that the idea of the snails is a good one. That may be the way to go for us. Thank you very much..

Isabella

You're welcome

If you're getting a 75 gallon tank, you can move as many inhabitants of the 10 gallon tank as will be necessary to make space for the few Otos. (If you can do that.) Indeed the tank is overstocked, so it's very good you're getting a 75 gallon tank Good luck with it.

sirsboon

Thank you

Isabella

No problemo

COBettaCouple

a possible combo for the 10g would be the tetras and some otos maybe? then you could keep the mollies together.

do you have a pic of the 'mystery' catfish? www.planetcatfish.com is a good site for catfish pics.

MelissaF672

If you're looking for the pleco look, a Clown pleco stays small and they're pretty little things






All kinds of different colors an patterns for these guys. I love em.

Max size is 3 - 4 inches.

username

Siamese Flying Foxes would work. However you could also do aquaic snails besides fish.

0morrokh

I believe a flying fox would outgrow a 10gal. Snails will eat some algae, but ususally not a ton. They prefer sinking fish food. And you can only get one unless you want to be overrun with them. They are very cool though.

A few Otos (they need to be in groups) would be great, providing there is not a lot else in the tank with them since they need very good water quality. The tetras should be kept in a shoal of 6 or more, and 6 White Skirts themselves would overstock the 10gal so they'll have to go to the 75. You could have Otos in there with 2 or 3 of the Mollies but not all 5 of them because that would overstock the tank too.

Another option for algae eaters would be Amano Shrimp. They stay small and produce a very minute amount of waste so you could get a whole bunch of them for the 10 gal. (like the Otos though they need good water quality, so only a few fish with them.) I think Cherry Shrimp are also pretty good algae eaters.

Gozer_1

Me personally I'd suggest staying far far away from freshwater snails. If you can manage to get only one with no babies stuck to it or any unborn you may be all right. I hear mystery snails are OK as far as taking over but I don't know. As for the standard little pointy cone shaped snail (don't know their name), these guys will fill your tank in days. Very hard to manage once they get out of control. You will go from cleaning algae to thinning out snails. I have heard of Apple snails being ok also but I have heard they are a bit touchy. Again I don't know for sure. Otos and shrimp sound like your best bet though I just use an algae scrubber on a stickand a MagFloat scrubber. 10 Gal cleans real quick. You should only have to do it once a week or so. If your algae is growing faster than that then you need to get it out of any sunny windows, feed them less and by all means get that 75 going. I have a 20 with no algae eaters. I only have to clean the algae at water change (every 2 weeks). Even then its not bad.

Cody

a otto would leave you with the most space....but it sounds like you dug yourself into a whole

pinky93

You should try some shrimps.They're gonna eat the algae and left over fish food