# Do any creatures eat GDA and/or hair algae?



## sjogren1 (Feb 23, 2004)

Will Otos, Ancistrus, mollies or any fish, or a any particular snail variety, eat Green Dust Algae or hair algae? This is regarding a non-CO2, no water column ferts, low light tank with Onyx Sand under Eco-Complete.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Ordinary pond snails certainly eat GDA, growing bigger than any you will have previously seen. But, that doesn't get rid of the GDA.


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## tropism (Jul 21, 2006)

You might want to look at this thread: best fish for cleaning glass?
I've had otos and red ramshorn snails and they definitely eat GDA. Hong Kong plecos (also known as butterfly loaches or hillstream loaches... they aren't really plecos) also eat it and some types of green furry algae, but mine much preferred algae on rocks & driftwood to the stuff on the glass. I don't think mollies have the "scraping power" to do a whole lot with the GDA. Then again, like Hoppycalif said about the pond snails, I wouldn't count on any of the things I mentioned above to get rid of a bad case of GDA... it just grows too fast. Maybe that's not the case with a low-light, no water column fertilizers tank though, I don't know.

As for hair algae, I haven't seen anything eat it like my Siamese Algae Eaters. Others on here haven't had the same experience with them though. Some say they get lazy and/or belligerent as they get older. Several types of shrimp seem to be pretty good at controlling hair algae as well.

Since you don't add phosphates and CO2, you may also (or instead) be getting GSA (Green Spot Algae). When I started lurking on APC I didn't realize there was a difference, and that I had GSA in addition to GDA. I don't think I've had any critters in my tanks that even touched GSA. Hoppy states rather well the difference between GSA and GDA in this thread, in case you're not already familiar with the two types.


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## banderbe (Nov 17, 2005)

Some folks have had lots of luck with Nerite snails and GDA.

Mine died the day after I bought them so I still scrape the glass every week.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

In order of most effective to less effective, Olive nerites, Niger ottos and rubbernose plecos have worked the best for me.


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