Small Algae Eater Needed For A 15 Gallon Community Tank

[Channti]

I've read the 30 Plecos under 8 Inches thread, but it's not helping me price them.

Basically, I've got a 15 Gallon Community tank that I'm looking for a small algae eater for. The tank inhabitants are:
6 adult (+ 1 one-month old fry and 4 two-day old fry) guppies (who are all, with the exception of 2 adults males, being rehomed in the next two weeks to a new tank).
3 Assorted Mollys
3 Corys
2 Swordtails

I had originally had a common plec in there (he was sold to me by an LFS who insisted that he wouldn't grow too big; when I found out how big he'd get, I found him a new home for when he outgrew my tank), but he died a week ago, and he didn't really do a good job of clearing up the algae on the glass as it was.

I need a small algae-eater that will clean the tank glass/ornaments in my tank and won't become aggressive towards my other fish. Any suggestions would be gladly accepted, and if possible, could you include what kind of price range I'd be looking at?

Thanks!

 

[Ripley]

I find Ottos to be the best for a small community tank.

 

[WoodenChair]

Flying foxes are algae eating machines

They just wont clean my glass

 

[ROSSCO22]

Nerite snails

 

[Dwarf-P.]

i would say about 4 otto's

 

[nmonks]

For a tank this small you don't want any algae-eating fish.

Fast growing plants plus a combination of nerites and shrimps will work extremely well. Do understand that some types of algae, in particular hair algae and blue-green algae, are completely ignored by algae-eating fish, so if those are the problem algae you have, adding Otocinclus isn't going to help. Diatoms tend to imply low levels of light; hair algae poor plant growth; blue-green algae chronically bad water quality; and green algae bright light without enough plants.

Otocinclus are fiddly at best, and if you're an inexperienced aquarist, it would a safe bet most of the ones you'd buy would be dead within six months. Contrary to popular misconception, Otocinclus are not well adapted to life in small, warm aquaria.

Cheers, Neale

 

[Dwarf-P.]

i hear this about otto's being fidly but i have no problem and i am probably the worst keeper of fish there is lol, they just live live live, maybe its somthing to do with if they are tank bred r wild, like nmonks said shrimps will do a pretty good job and at the end of the day you can just clean it, i find an old credit card works best, or tooth brushes for rocks etc.

 

[nmonks]

Clearly you're a lot better fishkeeper than you think!

It's actually a complex issue. Their mortality post-capture is high (commercially traded fish are all wild-caught, so far as I know) because they starve to death quite easily. Many will certainly be underweight by the time you buy them, and any success depends upon them being able to feed well once home. If your tank is clean, well-oxygenated, and has lots of green algae, then your Otocinclus do indeed have a good chance of recovery. But if your tank is poorly filtered, overstocked, high in nitrate, and doesn't have enough food for them, then they will surely starve.

Because they come from quite cool environments, specifically, the llanos streams, when the water gets above 25 C they become quite a bit more sensitive to low oxygen concentration. They aren't air-breathing catfish, so will suffocate if they cannot get the oxygen they need from the water. Aquaria with good circulation will therefore be better for them than aquaria with poor circulation.

If you're doing all the right things instinctively, as may well be the case, then my hat is off to you! But as a warning to other aquarists, I think it's useful to flag Otocinclus as sensitive fish that need careful maintenance.

One last thing, though perhaps not relevant to this question, is that Otocinclus are also confirmed slime-suckers. It's been reported from situations where they are kept with slow-moving fish such as discus. In my case, I observed it when combining these catfish with Awaous gobies, which are fairly large but not especially slow fish. The resulting wounds were horrific. At first I assumed the gobies were ill and treated accordingly, but only when I saw the Otocinclus latching onto the gobies and scraping away at the bloody tissue did I realise what was going on.

It could be that these catfish do this only when starving, in which case the fault was mine. But it could equally easily be a natural part of the feeding behaviour of some/all Otocinclus species, in which case you should be very careful what you keep them with.

All things considered, I don't recommend these catfish for casual aquarists, despite their wide sale. There are much better "mini" algae eaters out there, like some of the small Panaque species and especially the seemingly quite hardy Parotocinclus species.

Cheers, Neale

i hear this about otto's being fidly but i have no problem and i am probably the worst keeper of fish there is lol

 

[Dwarf-P.]

thanks for that information, i used to have a yellow algae sucker thing, and that kept on sucking on the side of the fish, eventually they died they burried into the rock substrate(biorb substrate) and then when i couldnt see them in the morning they were dead under the rocks, i presumed they were crushed, but now i think they probably starved and went looking for food and either couldnt reach it or couldnt get back out again

cheers nmonks

 

[ChiNA MaN]

Ottos,gold algae eaters,chinese algae eater but the best would be snails,shrimp just to scavenge a bit

 

[three-fingers]

Ottos,gold algae eaters,chinese algae eater but the best would be snails,shrimp just to scavenge a bit

Did you even skim over any of the above topic before answering?

Ottos have just been discussed, and a Chinese algae eater (same as a gold algae eater) is possibly the worst thing to add to the tank. Grow quite fast when fed well, and very soon stop eating algae, get big and are very territorial.

Snails and shrimp would be a good option, but have already been mentioned . They wouldn't be able to deal with the algae over the long-run though as they wont eat all types.

 

[Goodygumdrops]

I've got,or rather had,a veiltail bristlenose plec in my 12.5 gallon,I moved her to my bigger tank today to take care of the algae on my anubias leaves.
She was perfectly happy in the smaller tank,she cost me £8 I think,but you can get the standard ones much cheaper.
(She's about 4" long,with the long tail on top of that and I think fully grown).

 

[pippoodle]

couple of pitbull plecs , they're small and great and i got 2 for £5 from maidenhead aquatics
really easy to care for love munching algae

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=129802