Algae eaters and bottom feeders

[ajhainey]

OK - so I think my tank is nearly cycled (3 weeks - ammonia 0 with one test kit, very low with the other, nitrite 0 for past two days, nitrate 10), which is lucky as I'm going away for 2 weeks and leaving it with someone even more clueless than I am....Anyway I'm hoping when I get back it will all be definately over with and I'll be able to add some new fish - and I want something (anything!) that will eat the algae and little (tiny) white worms on the rock/glass/filter...and maybe a bottom feeder to hover up missed flakes...

Its a 180 litre tank and currently I have 8 tetras and 3 guppies (one leapt to his death from a closed tank - I still can't work out how...) and will eventually be adding more guppies (total=6), some mollies (4?), some danios(6?) and hopefully 2 angel fish (I know, I know - I'll get a backup tank for the tetras in case the angels start snacking on them) but for now I want to get some algae eaters in.

There are several kinds of black and white stripy and spotted catfish looking things (plecos?) at my lfs - I quite like the way they look, are they what I need? Will they sneak out and eat my tetras at night? How many do I need? I hear I need an 'otto' - do they come in any interesting colours? Or should I get shrimp?

Suggestions? Pictures?

Thanks in advance!

aj xx

 

[Tempestuousfury]

I wouldn't add the angels because they can get aggressive at times and the will attack other fish (I believe they eat neons, but not sure about that...)

Don't get any catfish without doing research. Most catfish can get to many feet and length and it's best to make sure you're net getting one of these. That might be a raphael plec, the fish you saw.

I'd suggest corydoras and otocinculs. However, you have to feed them algae discs and shrimp pellets among other things. You can't expect them to survive on scraps of food and a little bit of algae.

Also, if food is falling to the ground, then you're overfeeding. Feed the fish less food over a few minutes so they get all of it.

 

[endparenthesis]

I think shrimp sound good. Ghost shrimp aren't so good with algae, but they're excellent at getting up the missed food and detrious. Even if you decide to get a fish, you may want to put a few ghost shrimp in there anyway. Other shrimp are better with algae (amano, cherry red, bamboo) but they usually won't be found in an LFS.

I like cories a lot, but so far mine don't seem to make a dent in the algae... can't even tell if they're eating it or not.

No experience with plecos or ottos, sorry.

 

[cutecotton]

DAMNIT i had the whoelr eply typed up and then something happneed and it's all gone!

anyways i was saying, i have 3 otos and 4 shirmps in a 25G tank adn they love doing the clenaing job. the ghost shirmp likes to pick up teh foodt hat drops down since my white clouds are such messy eaters. as for the otos, i see them sucking on virutally anything (even the air stone ), but i dont' kow how much algae they are acutally eating (my tank is quite clean adn i havent' scrubbed it once yet ).

anyways, here's a pic of an oto, they look something like this:

http/www.amleto.de/aqua/otocincl/oto2.jpg

 

[gadazobe]

Whatever algae cleaner you get, please don't forget to feed him algae wafers or catfish food coz he'll soon demolish the algae and you don't want him to go hungry.
A group of 4 cories would make an ideal clean up crew and maybe a bristlenose as the algae eater.

 

[BirdofPray]

How often do you feed those algae wafers to your ottos?

 

[gadazobe]

I haven't got ottos. I have a bristlenose, common pleco and cories. I feed them all with algae wafers every other day.

 

[totalbolshevik]

I kept an angel in my community tank with a lot of tetras for years with no problems. Funny thing was, I tried putting another angel in there one time and he tore it apart... i guess it depends on your fish.

Anyways, corys are always good. They won't clean up algae, but they're cute and get along with just about anybody else in the tank. Somebody else already said this, but a lot of catfish, especially the ones that eat algae, get to be pretty damn big. I bought one a while ago, when I had no idea what I was doing. he was just a cute little guy at first, about 4 inches long. A year and a half later he had nearly doubled in size...

 

[gadazobe]

Bristlenoses get to be 4-5" maximum - and they're also cute (in an ugly sort of way )

Cories are great - get about 4 of the same kind coz they do better when they have friends of their own kind, and believe me, you won't be sorry.

 

[Tednol]

if your going to get an otto then get the zebra kind, there smaller so you can have a couple more, do be carefull when putting ottos into new tanks as they can die in the first month for no apparent reason, do your research whatevaer fish you buy.