I have a new 8" pleco that is in my 40 gallon aquarium. Someone recently gave him to me. The problem is that they cleaned the aquarium out before they gave him to me and now I don't think there is any algae for him to eat.

Well, I have a huge algae problem in my small pond (100 gallons) outside. (I just added barley straw to it) Algae has been growing in there like crazy within 2 days of placing any type of rock or display item in there. I have small "feeder fish"(comets) and 2 baby algae eaters. We went for a tour today at the mosquito control department and got about 7 mosquito fish that we added as well :rolleyes: I also have 3 lilly plants a dwarf papryus, and anacherus. Oh and I almost forgot to mention the water lettuce (5)that I had that died and I took them out yesterday. That is actually when my algae problem started (when I added them to the pond).

Anyhow, I was wondering if I could take something from my pond with algae on it and place it in my aquarium without the algae growth getting out of control? I know it would make my pleco happy, but i don't need another algae outbreak. I hope thebarley straw starts working quickly in the pond.

thanks.

The water lettuce may have had a species of algae attached to their undersides that you didn't have before then. What kind of algae eater do you have in the pond? If you live in an area that gets winters, they probably will have to come inside and wouldn't survive over the winter. You could bring in some pond algae and put it into the pond but it would probably spread into the tank, possibly introduce some pond nasties, and only provide food for the pleco for short term. I would feed the pleco with pleco algae wafers and cucumbers. See my pleco page at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/pleco.htm for more on feeding them.

My page on pond algae is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/algae2.htm if you haven't been there.

I hope things improve!

My plesos love pleco wafers ,they also eat peas ,prawns ( the dead ones that you buy salads) and dead fish.
Twizzle my big grumpy pleco also swims upside down at the surface of my tank at feeding time and eats fishfood.
Plecos are quite resorcful and will eat any avaliable food source.

Well in addition to veggies I decided to make my own algae food for my pleco. I ended up buying a small plastic kiddie pool and putting some water lettuce in there. I did not put any type of pond fish or any other plants in it. I put it in direct sunlight too. Algae started growing immediately. I put some aquarium castles and other things for inside aquariums. I then put the castle in with my pleco. I never saw him move so quickly. By the next morning the castle was spotless and there was no other algae spread in the tank. I have been alternating castles and aquarium items every 2 days. There has been no algae spreading in the aquarium so far. Thank goodness :)

Ok, that will work.

Be sure to put some Bt (mosquito dunks or Bt liquid) in the kiddie pool unless you want to breed mosquitoes for the local bats or to eat your neighbors alive.

I decided to add 3 mosquito fish to the pool from the date of the last post. I looked in there recently and I saw at least 6 babies swimming in there now. There are probably more, but I can't tell with the algae growing. I can't believe it. The 3 mosquito adults are all still alive. Now that I think back, I believe those were a few if my koi babies lol. You have to read the post "I have to vent, You will laugh" to know what I am talking about.