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I used to have quite a few fish-- several years ago though.  Just regular cleaning is all I can think of right now.  Crown Royal stupor and all... 


BTW, sorry about the fish.   

Snails.

I've heard that, now that you mention it.  I'll go get some snails, and I'll even name one of them "Malkin." 

my brother uses a few snails and a small shrimp or too and that seems to do it. he uses saltwater tanks though

Many pl*cos are get very sick during shipping, and then others get sick when bought from in-proper stores.  Many common pl*cos get much too large for any tank under 50 gallons.  a few good fish sites are fishgeeks.com and planetcatfish.com

We have some fish, and the tank was getting a bit of algae on it.  So we got a sucker fish to eat the algae. 

He died.

I just looked over at the tank, and he was quite dead.  He's only lived here about a week too. 

I just wanted to share.

So, for fear of sounding cold and insensitive, anyone know of any other ways to keep down algae blooms in indoor aquariums?  I don't want to subject another sucker fish to this apparently sucker-fish-unfriendly water.

you could superchlorinate it. 

...and I'll even name one of them "Malkin." 

you sure have a way with the ladies...

Was the sucker fish making any signifcant inroads on the algae before it croaked? Do you know specifically what species of sucker it was? I ask because I've heard that there are several species, but only one that consumes algae as its primary food source. The rest will eat a bit, but can't live on algae alone.

I don't know the species.  He was brown and bumpy, kinda looked like a rock.  And the pet store said he was good for eating algae, and for the week he was there, he really chowed down on it! 

I'll know more when I test the pH and metal content of the water, and I'll try to find out what kind of fish he was.

Many pl*cos are get very sick during shipping, and then others get sick when bought from in-proper stores.  Many common pl*cos get much too large for any tank under 50 gallons.  a few good fish sites are fishgeeks.com and planetcatfish.com

100,000 fish points for you.

It would be awesome to have a snail named after me!

Yeah, snails can take over your tanks if you let them, but personally I don't care.  I raise Fancy Guppies and because of my snails and live plants, I hardly ever have to clean my tank or change the water.  If a fish happens to die, the snails usually clean the whole thing up before I even have a chance.  It's nice.

I'm pretty convinced I have my own sub-species of snail at this point, because the thousands of snails I had over the years came from only two.  They went through a cycle where the majority of their shells turned white and got holes in them, but the strong have survived!  It's neat to watch the life cycle patterns follow the amount of food and space available in the tank.

You can buy bigger snails for a few bucks that sometimes have coloured shells or something neat like that, but the little ones you can usually get for free.  I use the little ones.  I am a snail fan.

Shells turning white and growing 'holes' is an indication of one of those parasitic infections I mentioned earlier.  The flukes are leaving the snail and heading for their next host.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/Mollusks/schnecken.html
http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/~schisto/Othe … ciola.html

Although I wouldn't doubt that snails carry many parasites, I don't think that's the case with mine.  As I said before, all of my snails came from two originals.  The shell problems didn't start until many generations (about four or five years worth) had come and gone.  During that time, there were no new introductions to the tanks, save for water replacement and the fish born in the tanks (yes, my fish are also very inbred, but not quite so bad ).  I have a feeling that my snails could simply use some new genetic material, although most of the survivors are healthy.  I'll keep in mind not to drink the tank water though. 

I just lost 2 pl*cos and 3 striped pictas to some Ick. I've put the ick solution in the water, and the 3 remaining Gourami seem o.k.  I'm gonna pick up another pl*cos this weekend and see how it goes.

My South American Gar choked to death on a shrimp pellet before the Ick could kill him. 

Here's one tip I can help with!  Ick cannot survive over a certain temperature... I can't remember if it's 80