# Success with mollies or platies?



## WntrMute2

Has anyone had reasonable success controlling green hair algae with either of these fish? I'm ordering a bunch of shrimp and nerites to help out.
Thanks in advance.
Dave


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## mikenas102

As with most other algae eating fish, the amount of algae they eat is going to depend on how hungry they are. Spoil them with an abundance of regular fish food and they probably won't touch any algae. The idea is to keep them hungry. I have found that platies totally eliminated any surface scum that would appear at the surface.


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## artdale

I have platies and no algae in my 15g aquarium while I was experiencing a lot of algae problems before inserting them. Obviously may be these facts are not related....


PS: I'm not yet able to edit my signature and display information about me, but my bad English is due to the fact that I'm Italian (and not smart enough with languages).


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## mpe1329

Don't know about algae, but if you have HC, watch out for the mollies. I had 2 females that yanked a lot of my HC out of the substrate before I could get them out. Strangely, the male has not touched the stuff.


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## Carissa1

I don't know about hair algae specifically, but of the two I believe mollies are more voracious algae eaters. I haven't kept platies recently but I used to and never noticed them eating algae much. My mollies are always scrounging around for it everywhere.


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## Paul Munro

My platies wont touch algae! didnt know any platy would! shrimp are good


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## exterminator

Molly is a brackish water fish. Is it ok to keep it in a community tank with regular, fresh water?


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## Beaver

i see my platies eating alge all the time, but not enough to get rid of it.


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## helgymatt

My 2 mollies definately keep down my surface scum in my 55. Although I do see them nipping at leaves of plants I'm not sure they are really eating any algae. Maybe I don't have any algae for them to eat
Matt


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## NoSvOrAx

Black Mollies are great for a bunch of kinds of algae including cladaphora (sp?) and hair IME. But you have to not feed them as mike said.

I have also noticed that its the females that eat most of the algae as the males seem preoccupied with chasing the females.


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## Esteroali

I have an El Natural 20G ..."Esteroali's Home for Unwed Platties"...50 + babies plus 3 fecund moms. No algae but I don't think they ever eat it.
Any body want FREE FISH??


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