Rough Substance: Bottom Feeders?

[mwood2]

So after inspecting my substance in my new 20 long I find thats its probally to rough for Cory. It seems somewhat better then flortite but not a whole lot. On the bright side though it looks great, just like black sand/black gravel mixture. I can already see bubbles coming off my plants so they are getting alot more nutrients.

Back to the point, would any bottom feeders work or am I not able to get any. I am thinking Plecos if I plant it up enough since they tend to hand out on plants/decor more often anyways (for me at least). Would anything work or should I just not chance it? Would love to show a picture if I had a camera...

 

[Wills]

How about whiptail or twig plecos a red lizard LDA10 or L10a (I think) they are quite nice and they do well in planted tanks as well

 

[Bignose]

1) The word is "substrate" not "substance"

2) The rough substrate thing is bit of a myth. Water quality has far, far more to do with the barbels of cory catfish wearing off than the sharpness of the material of any substrates.

There was a nice experiment done a while by someone to prove this point. The guy kept 3 tanks: all with identical cory catfish species in them

Tank #1 had a soil substrate and did regular large water changes to keep the nitrates low.
Tank #2 had a crushed glass substrate and also had large water changes performed on it.
Tank #3 has soil substrate, but didn't get any water changes.

The only tank where the catfish had barbels being worn off was #3, the one with the high nitrate levels. Tank #2, with the very sharp substrate material -- crushed glass -- the barbels were just as healthy as Tank #1.

Quite simply, every substrate is sharp in some way. Take a look at soil under a microscope or magnifying glass -- soil is just very fine pieces of rock and the pieces are each sharp and pointy, individually.

The moral of the story is: do regular large water changes and your cory catfish will be fine.

 

[Tory]

Yah, I agree,

Ive kept Corys, Bn's, Plecs and Loaches in both sand, and gravel, and theyve seemed to fare well on both, ive currently got all mentionned on gravel because I sprung a leak in my sand tank, and theyre all fine, although I choose to keep them in sand because they like to dig in it! I think if you ask, most people start keeping corys in a gravel tank because they dont know any different, and it doesnt seem to do them any problems. I think its just the fish prefer it - as in my case above

 

[mwood2]

Well I think 1 BN and 5 Dwarf Chain Loach would be ok then based on what you are saying. Just need to plant the tank up some more first but so far the tank looks amazing.

Just need to work on that 10 gallon now...looks nasty

 

[JustKia]

That's interesting BigNose.
I wonder if the myth is then backed up by people not keeping the gravel as clean as could be and so the build up of detritus in the gravel is largely to blame?

 

[Inchworm]

One experiment hardly makes the experience of so many other fishkeepers a myth. Either rough OR dirty substrate can cause erosion of barbels.