Plec or similar?

[jive_bunny]

Hi All,

What can I put in with my malawi to tackle food at the bottom? Up until now I havent had any algae problems so perhaps no need for an algae eater as such. I do have some albino corys in there at the moment (left over from when the tank was cycling) but now the Malawi's are bigger they are nipping the corys and stressing them ever so much so I am going to take them out and out them in my other tank.

Any plec/other fish that will help the tank but be acceptable with Malawi's? Tank is Rio 300 and I have the following in there:

(Pseudotropheus Zebra) – “Red Zebra” x 3
(Labidochromis caeruleus) – “Yellow Lab” x 3
(Labidochromis sp) – “Hongi” x 3
(Pseudotropheus demasoni) x 3

Cheers,

Add

 

[Ferris]

A Sailfin plec would work, i have 1 in my Mbuna tank and they all clear out of his way when he's on the move . He's about 8" now and they can grow up to 18" so bear that in mind.

A smaller option would be Bristlenose plecs, they grow to about 5-6 " so you could have 3 or 4, they are great algae eaters and should be fine with Mbuna.

 

[jive_bunny]

Hi Ferris,

18" - Wow - That's a biggie. Anything a little smaller? Hmmm I have just had to remove my BN from another tank and take him to the LFS as he was extremely territorial. I didnt think to put him in the Cichlid tank. Doh!

 

[Ferris]

Yeah BN's are tough enough to cope with cichlid aggression whearas a lot of the other smaller plecs are not so BN's are a safe bet. You can get different colour variations (albino etc) although you tend to pay a bit more for these.

My local LFS have some lovely black and red BN's in at the moment. £14 though compared to around £4 for a common BN.

 

[rabbit]

Just a quickie ive got a rusty plec in with my cichlids and boy do they eat algae been in there for about a yr now they seem all to be happy oh and they eating ma left over hakari cichlid food