There have been reports of Desert Gobies stomach contents being examined
and considerable proportions of algae being present. From memory the
conjecture was that it was accidentally ingested while eating benthic
organisms such as chironomid larvae etc
Other Oz-fish that I have seen "grazing" include Honey Blue-eyes (P.
mellis) , Trifasciatas (especially Goyders), and some of the Hardyheads
(especially C. stramineus and C. marjoriae).
Maybe Roy can dispose of his Blackmast fry by advertising them as algae
lawnmowers :-)
Cheers
Bruce Hansen
----------
> From: caryho at ix.netcom.comREMOVE_TO_REPLY
> To: rainbowfish at pcug.org.au
> Subject: Re: [RML] Re: [algae]
> Date: Wednesday, 7 May 1997 21:53
>
> In The Dawn of the Third Age StephenBou at aol.com woke me from my
> contemplation by writing:
>
> >It was suggested that I use a 1/4 dose of algacide first and then
monitor
> >things.
> >
> >The story behind the hair algae is that it came on a rock from a small
> >Wisconsin stream -- 3 years ago! Just goes to show that it pays to
> >sterilize beforehand.
> >
> If you really want to keep hair algae under control, nothing beats a
> siamensis. I keep these in all my planted tanks and have never had a
> problem with hair algae since. They're not that great on other types
> of algae, so I do keep some bushynoses also in these tanks. I'll also
> move a siamensis from tank to tank in my non planted aquaria to do a
> little clean up on the hair algae. I originally brought some in to my
> tanks by bringing in some plants from my outdoor pond. I've since
> brought in other types of hair algae from plants I've bought. I don't
> believe there is any method of stopping bringing in new algae forms
> without also killing the plants.
> I have noted I never get hair algae growing in my desert gobie tanks.
> I've been wondering if they're also a good fish for cleaning up this
> problem. Anybody else notice if their desert gobies clean up the hair
> algae in their tanks? Maybe we could promote them the way other algae
> eaters get promoted.
>
> later
> Cary Hostrawser
> *please note the reply to address has been modified to
> prevent automated junk mail.
> Minnesota Aquarium Society
> http://www.mn-aquarium.org/
>
> http://home.stlnet.com/~gwlange/rainbowfish.index.html/