Best Clean Up Fish For Bichir/cichlid Tank?

[rixy]

hi,i have 3 bichirs and some severums/nics.i also have a hoplo catfish as the clean up crew.trouble is,hes such a greedy bugger.he eats as much of the severums food as possible and as much of the bichirs food as possible.i want him to go as im really overfeeding the tank just to make sure all the fish get fed.any ideas on what would make a good cleaner for the bottom of the tank,but,not get too large( over 6 inches) and not be such a greedy boy lol.thanks in advance mark.ps i dont want anything that gets too big as i want the bichirs to have space,but not too small as so the bichirs eat it.my 3 bichirs are a senegal,palmas polli,delhezi.

 

[rixy]

anyone???

 

[mr williams]

Tough for me to recomend anything to share the bottom with 3 birchir any type of plec might be trouble... I have clown loaches in with mine but they will get past 6in... but not for a while

 

[Fruitbat]

Many of the Synodontis species will work out very nicely as a clean-up crew in a bichir tank. Be careful, however, to not get small individuals because your bichirs snack on small Synodontis cats in the wild. Currently I have Synodontis brichardi, Synodontis soloni and Synodontis nigrita in various bichir tanks and they do a reasonably good job on clean-up.

-Joe

 

[rixy]

i have a rubbernose and a bristlenose.what about me getting another bristlenose or 2?

 

[Gankutsuou]

many plecos are suggested to not go with bichirs because they will suck on their slime coat. The bichir will not be able to stop or prevent this and they will become suseptable to diseases.

I, however, think there are a few pleco's better suited to go with them.

Flash pleco (they perfer wood)
Queen arabesque (I have viewed no problems)
Clown pleco (although... small... they could get eaten)

A bristle nose is something I would fear. I could easily see him or a bulldog sucking on a slime coat of a bichir....