Need A Good Cleaner

[Gage]

the tank is 32" x 7", pH is 7.6, any good options, i really like oil cats Tatia perugiae, but cant find any and i like bumblebee cats bt they are to common and i already have one in different tank

 

[Wolf361]

well pick out cats that aren't strictly carnovirous like a pleco, corys, whiptails and such.

 

[Gage]

why not the strictly carnivorous ones? just curious.

 

[Wolf361]

Well coz those kinds of catfish aren't what you call trash compactors. They like live food and like uhm good. I discovered that some catfishes like lima, Tiger shovelnoses and other catfishes of that nature are meat eaters that perfer live foods. You can still feed them pellets and what not, but they perfer food they can stalk at night xD!

Other catfishes like your channel, plecos, corys, and such are the trash compactors. You would have to look it up to find out which catfish you want to have a role in your tank. I go for channels if you can handle the size, they will eat anything even the nasty stuff lol!

 

[Gage]

i think i found what im looking for, they are called BRACHYRHAMDIA MEESI (srry bout the caps, but i cant spell it yet so i copied and pasted), my fav family of catfish (other then Loricariidae and Doradidae, i love those raphaels, striped and spotted) but these B. meesi are perfect, the profile on planetcatfish says u need to take care into feeding cause they will pretty much eat themselves to death, well i dont feed that much, so they will be good.

 

[CFC]

There is no catfish that will eat actual waste, they all require feeding of some decription depending on diet and will not just survive on the scraps left by other fish.

The only creatures that can clean your tank are things like shrimps snails and small crabs but these are unsuitable for 99% of FW set ups.

 

[LauraFrog]

I haven't found anything better for algae removal than a bristlenose, but he eats other things as well, mostly the scraps the other fish chew off my live plants and any food they miss. They're common for a reason. They need algae tabs though. I've found mine does well on tropical flakes as well... he's the only other fish in the tank apart from platies, it's basically a species tank, and so I sprinkle the flakes on the top of the water for the gutses and push a few down onto the driftwood to feed the fry and the catfish.

I haven't heard of B. meesi, what does it look like?

 

[2day]

There is no catfish that will eat actual waste, they all require feeding of some decription depending on diet and will not just survive on the scraps left by other fish.

The only creatures that can clean your tank are things like shrimps snails and small crabs but these are unsuitable for 99% of FW set ups.

Just what i was about to say lol.

Sooner or later, you will realise that they are not 'cleaner upperers' (if that's a word, and if you know what i mean). Catfish require food to live and usually eat pretty much anything (well mine do anyway).

 

[Gage]

man, im looking for algae removal, i can feed whatever they need when they are done with the algae (and theirs lots lol) where did u guys get the idea i wouldnt feed him? i know better then that ... anyway!

heres a pic of B. meesi

they are in the same family as a pictus cat, and they stay around 3"! how much better can it get lol, i still need an algae eater though, so i think im goin with either a bristlenose for 20-25 bux (their pretty high priced where i live), or a cheap old bulldog/rubbernose pleco for 9.99.

 

[Straydum]

for your algae problem, you could widen your choices on more exotic plecs to add to your tank. i dont know how much a 32" x 7" holds but you know what i mean

 

[invader]

for your algae problem, you could widen your choices on more exotic plecs to add to your tank. i dont know how much a 32" x 7" holds but you know what i mean

As long as you make sure that the plec is actually an algae eating plec and not a carniverous one.

IMO, I would invest in an algae scrubber.