# Goodeids eat BBA



## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

is not a joke!! these are cute, small, and actually eat black brush algea!!
i have quite a few; blue green,ameca splendens, red tail, rainbow, and a few other. i bought them for curiosity at first and noticed them once eating algea off a new plant! last saturday i adquired a few new ones (because noone was interested...) and since then i see them picking bba off my crinum calamistratum plant virtually taking chuncks off at the time! i will post pics if i can catch them still  
does anyone else know anything, have any experience??


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

is that a fish or something?


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

The Ameca Splendens is perhaps the best FW algae eater out there; better than an American Flagfish. The reason they are not commonly kept are (1) not very colorful, (2)they become quite large and get VERY territorial, (3) Livebearers who have 1" fry with umbilical cords is a fish to reckon with.


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

doubleott05 said:


> is that a fish or something?


i did post in the fish section :rofl: 
kidding!!

thanks newt, and yes! the babies are freaky! really freaky!! i was like how the :horn: did that many and that size fish fit in there!!! lol

and the ones i have are not larger than two inches so far not much agresiveness yet, we shall see how they do as they mature


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## ashappard (Jun 3, 2006)

I highly recommend Goodeids to anybody who may like live bearers or want to try them. 
Heres my Xenotoca eiseni. I like these guys a lot.


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

and that is a really good picture too'!! i spent the whole afternoon trying to get a decent shot..no success:-k


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## ashappard (Jun 3, 2006)

yeah they are kind of frisky. Getting them to be still for a second, male and female in the same frame; challenging.


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

I just got 2 pairs of juvenile Zoogoneticus tequila (aka crescent goodeids/tequila splitfins) about a month back. So far they've done nothing to dent the small lawn of hair algae in their tank (which, other than the algae, is quite pristine...)... maybe they just don't like hair algae? But I'll keep them in mind if I ever have a problem with BBA.

I do want to get my hands on some Xenotoca eiseni... very neat looking fish. Both they and the Z. tequila are critically endangered in the wild, so I highly encourage hobbyists to breed them if they can.


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

my hands on some Xenotoca eiseni... very neat looking fish. Both they and the Z. tequila are critically endangered in the wild said:


> thats one of the [airs i just got =D, chubby little guys!!! and the female might be pregnant, i saved their names because they have location and all but had to go and see what i had lol, too hard to remember! : from rio Tamazula, Jalisco
> 
> the other ones i have is characodon sp. raibow goodeid , Abraham Gonzales, mexico
> 
> ...


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

some crappy shots! sorry...my poor camera, it really sucks! :supz:


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

I like the look of that male Characodon (C. lateralis maybe?)... pretty red fins. Kind of looks like he wants to eat the pleco in the 1st pic :mrgreen:

Here are some shots of my Z. tequila... the male just wouldn't sit still for me, but I got a decent shot of the female. Observe the GHA wads in the background that they decidedly fail at eating. :rofl:









male








female


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## THE_MOTHER_JEWELS (Feb 10, 2011)

ddavila06 said:


> i spent the whole afternoon trying to get a decent shot..no success:-k


Thats because they will _NEVER_ be still.

I have never owned Tanganyikan Tropheus; but the Goodies dietary habits seem similair to 
aufwuch eaters. 
Its not like they sit down and eat a big bowl of algae for breakfast - though they are constantly "rasping" , , , as a toothed carp can. When I clean the glass below the substrate they absolutely *brawl* over the BGA
I took this photo posthumously. It shows how well equiped these beasts are!









This shots shows off the _Splendens_ of the Ameca


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

well the reason i asked what a goodeids is is because i googled them and got many pics of different fish so i really didnt know what it was. it even pulled up pics of fancy guppys.

so is a goodeids a species or a specific fish? im still baffled by this thing..

i never really have been much of a fish person. i mean i could name every tetra out there but my main focus is usually plants. i dont usually even keep fish in my tanks because wehn its time to redo the tank it takes longer to get them out than to actually rescape the tank.

Thanks
Elliot


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## THE_MOTHER_JEWELS (Feb 10, 2011)

As you can see I am new here. . .

I hope this is 'kosher'

http://www.goodeiden.de/html/goodeids.html

*Quoted from above link*

"Scientifically, Goodeids were discovered relatively late and so were nearly unknown to aquarists. Before the description of Ameca splendens by MILLER & FITZSIMMONS (1971) most genera were practically unknown. Since Ameca was very different from well-known livebearers, the interest of live-bearing enthusiasts was very high on both sides of the Atlantic. As a result, other formerly unknown Goodeids became available within a few years.

Today, there is still an interest in Goodeids, but the enthusiastic activity of the mid- and late seventies has turned into a more sober attitude. Between 1939 and 1971 Goodeids were scientifically examined, but the family was not systematized. Until the seventies, they were of little interest among scientists"

_I do love them goodies!_


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

doubleott05 said:


> well the reason i asked what a goodeids is is because i googled them and got many pics of different fish so i really didnt know what it was. it even pulled up pics of fancy guppys.
> 
> so is a goodeids a species or a specific fish? im still baffled by this thing..
> 
> ...


Goodeids are a family of fish (family Goodeidae, to be precise). Just like cichlids are all one family (Cichlidae), or all plecos/armored cats are in family Loricaridae, Goodeids are their own family... which, admittedly, is somewhat less diverse than the other families I mentioned.


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

thanks asuka that makes sense now. its a faimly now i can search for them knowing where to start.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

I realise this thread is kind of old ... but I anyway like to add a few comments:

Yes, they eat various algae, but as there are about 50 Goodeid species, their habits differ from species to species. Some are mainly carnivorous! _Ameca_ is a good algae-eater and _Xenotoca_ a fair one.

But, they can have a tendency to bite chunks out of the fins of other fish species, so I would not recommend them for a community aquarium. Maybe _Ilyodon_ would go well.

Also, besides algae they can also eat various plants, or at least they can damage growing tips of some plants. Again, this tendency differs between species.

_Ameca splendens_ is critically endangered but not extinct in the wild. The same is for most species. A few only survive in aquaria.

In Europe, dedicated aquarists have established the Goodeid Working Group, in order to exchange information, experiences and (sometimes) fish. The main goal is to help these fish survive, both in aquaria and in the wild. I see no reason why people from other parts of the world wouldn't (or shouldn't) join, apart from the somewhat long travel distance to the annual meetings. In fact, there are members from other parts of the world already.

For more on these fish, see http://www.goodeidworkinggroup.com/


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I never noticed my Xenotoca eiseni eating BBA, but then again the tank was so full of plants it was hard to see them half the time. They never bred unfortunately, however, I did manage to get the tequilas to breed


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