I Need Some Fishy Advice

[allie95]

Ok, so I have 3 fish- 3 guppies and 3 platies. I recently upgraded from a 10g tank to a 26g tank (not much, but that's the max my mom would let me go). Now I want to add an algae eater, but I'm not sure what would be compatible? ANy advice? And any other suggestions would be good too

 

[Jenste]

you could probably fit in ONE bristlenose/bushynose pleco. they come in regular brown patterns or albino

but...with proper tank maintenance, you should not even need an algae eater. they are massive waste producers and that fact alone will severely limit you stocking. they are also more active at night, and hide a good deal during the day...making them rarely seen.
by even just adding some liveplants....even the extremely simple "banana plants" and water wisteria (i leave it floating - - will work as great fry protection if you have enough of it)...these plants will feed off the bacteria that would normally feed the algae.

maybe skip the algae eater and instead think about more fish you may like that will allow you to stock more and will be seen during the day

 

[steve...c]

you could probably fit in ONE bristlenose/bushynose pleco. they come in regular brown patterns or albino

but...with proper tank maintenance, you should not even need an algae eater. they are massive waste producers and that fact alone will severely limit you stocking. they are also more active at night, and hide a good deal during the day...making them rarely seen.
by even just adding some liveplants....even the extremely simple "banana plants" and water wisteria (i leave it floating - - will work as great fry protection if you have enough of it)...these plants will feed off the bacteria that would normally feed the algae.

maybe skip the algae eater and instead think about more fish you may like that will allow you to stock more and will be seen during the day

do you know anything about the siamese algae eater, i see one today browesing the net and wouldnt mind looking into getting one,and as it was for sale thought the info given might of been slightly bias.

thanks

 

[steve...c]

wasnt hijacking your post allie just thought this might be a option for you aswell

 

[jacko32]

Otocinclus Catfish these guys are great there only small and you need to keep 6 or more really

 

[roadmaster]

Farlowella is a often overlooked Fish.

 

[allie95]

Thanks everyone, I'll look at them when I get the chance lol.

 

[Quisty]

I have a plain old pleco in my tank. He's pretty cool.

 

[bubble87]

yes you can have a pleco in your tank.it will not be able to stay in there forever and will outgrow your tank.

 

[arobinson1984]

There are only a couple of different plecs that you could keep in that size tank, the 2 that spring to mind are:

1. Bristlenose plec (aka BN plec)
2. Bulldog plec (L187 i think)

Andy

 

[Gaz_S]

Clown pleco could be an option. Do you have driftwood or any other type of wood in the tank?

 

[jacko32]

theres loads of smaller plecs but not all of them will eat algea

 

[allie95]

Well I don't have any wood. But I was thinking- if all of the algae eating fish are too big for my tank, would some sort of snail work? This is my first set of fish, really, so I'm open for experimentation.

 

[jacko32]

you can fit a bristlenose plec in there or a group of oto's alternatively you could get an apple snail but really its like jenste said earlier with good maintenance algea shouldnt be too much of an issue

 

[allie95]

Ok.