In your aquarium can you see algae inside (Greenish color on glass) What are the best algae eaters? can you prevent goldfish from eating algae? There are more too…
Goldfish will eat anything they find; algae, dead fish, decade plants or waste food, etc. Goldfish eat algae when they feel hungry, so you need to feed them well, or else they
In every aquarium or fish tank, you can see algae. Removing or preventing algae from the tank was very hard. Many fish keepers add snails for algae, and cleaning fish tanks was impossible every day. What will happen if goldfish eat algae or any way to prevent the fish tanks from algae?
Can Goldfish eat Algae?
Goldfish will eat anything they get because they are omnivores. They will eat both animals and plants inside the aquarium. You need to be careful while plating live plants or inside the aquarium. If goldfish feel hungry, they will start to eat dead plants or algae.
Try to avoid algae inside the aquarium and feed according to time schedules. You can add an algae eater to the goldfish tank. The benefits are they will maintain the tank clean and fresh water.
For example: if you add snails to the goldfish tank, they will start eating algae and dead plants, waste food, etc.
How to clean algae in a fish tank
Algae are good for the fish tank because they will make the aquarium a good aquatic environment for breeding. Sometimes they will grow rapidly, this will make fish swim stressed and many health problems.
Before removing algae from the fish tank, you need to determine the types of algae in the fish tanks
There are different types of algae in fish tanks, below you can see the list.
- Brown algae
- Blue-green algae
- Red algae
- Green algae
Green algae are good for the fish tank because they will help to maintain good aquatic conditions inside the fish tank. You can also control the green algae growth as long as you care for them.
To clean algae or remove algae completely, you can use 10% bleach and dip the live plants in it for a few minutes to remove algae. You can also clean the fish tank using bleach power to remove the algae (Use Bleach on the algae-affected side).
What cleaner fish can live with goldfish?
There are different types of fish that will eat algae, but to maintain the fish tank clean and fresh you can use the below list of fish for cleaning the fish tanks. However, You can choose the one according to remove algae.
- Worldwide Tropicals Life Freshwater Nerite Snails
- One Stop Aquatics Malaysian Trumpet Snails
- Odyssea Aquarium Panda Corydoras
- Kazen Aquatic Mix Color Ramshorn Snails
- Finchville Aquatics Otocinclus Hoppei
You can buy and introduce these fish in a goldfish aquarium to prevent algae. You will know the details of each fish in the next section.
List of Algae Eater
There are lots of algae eaters available in the market, but I will provide you with 9 algae eaters.
Plecostomus
Most fish such as suckermouth catfish will belong to plecostomus. They will eat all types of algae like underwater vacuums. They have a better ability to eat algae and waste food.
The Plecostomus was also known as the janitor fish. Many fishkeepers have used suckermouth catfish for cleaning algae and waste food from fish tanks.
In your goldfish aquariums, if you found some algae content then you can use suckermouth catfish for cleaning it. They are peaceful and do not need to worry about eating fish.
Kuhli Loach
The Kuli Loach was another algae eater, it will eat almost what it found such as dead plants, taste food, algae, etc. Kuhli Loach was also considered the oddball fish because they have eel-like bodies.
The main problem with introducing kuhli Loach to goldfish fish tanks is they may get easily injured due to heavy pin top gravels. So you need to provide a good substrate house for Kuhli Loach. Complete care guide for Kuhli Loach.
Otocinclus
The Otocinclus was the best algae cleaner for nano fish tanks. They are born to eat small particles, particularly algae.
Otocinclus are small in size but they will eat strands of algae. They will never attack any other fish.
You can add Otocinclus to the goldfish tank for clean algae, They may need more time to eat algae.
Ghost Shrimp
Ghost shrimps are one of the best and most popular types of grass shrimp in the aquarium. They will be using live plants for food and shelter. They will not eat or damage the live plant while searching for algae.
There are available in every market, you can also ask about” Cleaner shrimps”. Before buying any shrimps, you need to confirm that they live in freshwater. Many aquarium stores provide wrong information about shrimps and their care.
You can introduce Ghost Shrimp to the goldfish tank, but you need to provide a good aquatic environment with live plants. Then only Ghost Shrimp can survive in a goldfish tank for shelter and food.
Amano Shrimp
If you ask a professional fish keeper for the best algae-eating shrimps, they would be choosing Amano Shrimps because they are suitable for small and large aquariums. They will eat almost all algae from fish tanks.
Amano Shrimp are the most voracious algae cleaners. Amano Shrimp are friendly shrimps that can be used for cleaning algae inside the tank.
When you introduce Amano Shrimp to the goldfish aquarium, you may see they hang on plants. Don’t worry, they are not eating plants, but the algae that coat plants.
Bamboo Shrimp
Bamboo Shrimp are another fish for cleaning algae, they are not just algae eaters. They particularly eat what they found around them.
The Bamboo Shrimp will find the algae formation around the fish tank and start eating it. It will seek out the area where the flow was high, in that area algae will form more.
Nerite Snail
Nerite snails are one of the most popular algae-cleaning snails. You can find Nerite Snail near your aquarium store.
You can keep the Nerite Snail together as a group, you need to add 5 gallons per snail to the aquarium. They will clean algae and waste food.
There are different types of Nerite Snail that you can get from a pet shop. Buy freshwater Nerite Snail. Nerite snails like heavy live planted aquatic environment with moist gravel and mud bottoms.
Apple Snail
Apple snails were also known as” mystery snails” because they are one of the larger freshwater snails. They are shaped like apples, so people start them as apple snails.
They love heavily planted fish tanks with plenty of thickets to shelter. Apple snails will eat both detritus and algae.
You can introduce apple snails to the goldfish tank because they are peaceful and will not attack any other fish. But they will not stay at bottom of the tank, they will be climbing to the middle or upper level of the tank.
Rabbit Snail
Rabbit Snail was the cute algae eater you can get from pet shops. There are several types of Rabbit snails with eye-catching colors. They like heavy live-planted fish tanks with small gravels.
You can introduce Rabbit Snail to the goldfish tank because it will not hurt or attack any other fish in the aquarium.
Do algae eaters keep the tank clean?
Algae eater will keep the tank clean from algae. But you need to maintain the water changing and cleaning schedule.
They have limitations in eating algae and cleaning the tank. you need to take care fish tank when algae grow rapidly.
How do I prevent algae in my goldfish tank?
There are a lot of ways for controlling the growth of algae in fish tanks. You can maintain the algae growth with algae eaters for some range. You can also prevent the fish tanks from algae.
You need to provide dim light, clean the water and scrap away the algae build-up. There are a lot of ways more. That I will be creating a detailed blog.
