Does brown algae (or the cause of it) affect bettas?

Ricktavious started to get fungal finrot. Since treating it, his tank has started (coincidentally or not, I do not know) to get brown algae. Is the algae harmful to him? Would buying one of those algae removing kits solve the problem, yet not hurt him in the finrot recovery? Thanks!

 

No, brown algae shouldn't harm him. I get it all the time, but I have oto cats to keep it to a minimum. I wouldn't go out to buy the kits. Those kits could potentially hurt him. I would go out and buy yourself a couple oto cats. They are great little algae eaters. Work fast too. When you don't have algae and it looks like they need food feed them green veggies or sinking algae wafers as long as you can keep ricktavious away from it.I tend to feed them vegetable more then the wafers because the Bettas usually like to eat them. Hope I was helpfull.Natalie

 

Brown algae is generally in young tanks. Maybe the meds have sent your cycle off-whack?

But I don't think that they can directly hurt your betta. One of my my female has had them for a few weeks and is totally fine.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Kind of worried about him, he's staying mostly at the bottom and only coming up for air....not doing much swimming around, but maybe he's just tired

 

the diatoms (brown algae) should go away on their own, or you can just wipe them off with a paper towel. NEVER use algae removing liquids! we almost killed ALL our fish doing that and many others here have had the same nightmare with them.

how is his appetite? is he still getting meds? what meds have you treated him with? did you use A/C to clear the meds if he's done with them?

 

Thanks for the info on both the algae and the liquids used to remove it. Will definitely stay away from those!

Ok, he's been eating today. He's on API Fungal Cure for fin rot, as well as one anti-bacterial jungle tabs tablet per day (if it's not one kind of fin rot, it's the other, haha!). He doesn't appear to be breathing hard or have clamped fins. Maybe he's just taking it easy today!

 

If the outbreak gets to be too much for you try buying him a couple of little otocinclus catfish to keep him company and the diatoms will not last long. The only thing to watch is not to get more than 2 otos per 5 gallons of tank space as they will starve to death with more than that. You will also have to supplement their diet with algae wafers for when they have the tank cleaned up and there are no more diatoms, but not to be used when the diatoms are present or they get lazy and do not want to clean the tank.

Rose