Suitable Clean Up Crew

[community begginer]

g'day everyone. just wondering what would be a suitable clean up crew member for a 250lt 3 foot tank?
at the moment i have 8 guppies, 4 swordtails and 3 corries.
i would like to have a fish (preferably a catfish of some sort) that will help keep the tank spick and span but im not sure who or what is a suitable tank mate.
please help me.
regards community begginer.

ps. is it ok to have only 3 bronze corries instead of the recomemded 4?
i wouldnt think 1 missing is going to have such a big impact on the 3.

 

[OohFeeshy]

There is no such thing as a FW clean up crew. Every fish needs its own food, creates mess and adds to ammonia, often maknig the tank dirtier than before they were added.

 

[Phoenixfish]

shrimp arnt bad
if its got live plants in

 

[Kipper_Face]

Shrimps are great fun, constantly looking for scraps of food and waste they can eat. Shy for the first few weeks (may think you have lost them) then suddenly appear and become cheeky by grabbing food from under the fishes noses!

 

[jayjay]

yeah you can't really class any catfish as a "clean up crew" as they need to be fed and they can't rely on scraps falling their way. but i would say shrimp if the tank has alot of cover algae growth etc.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Which do you want to clean up- algae or detritus/leftover food/poo?
If the former, either a bristlenose plec or a group of shrimps would do fine, but there is a price to pay in that they will produce waste (poo) that you will have to clean out of the tank (gravel vac).
If the latter, then it's not going to work. Any creature that eats, even waste and detritus, is going to produce waste of their own, what goes in must come out. Shrimps are quite low in bioload, but this is not to say that they never poop.
In either case, the good reason to get catfish or shrimps is that you really like them and want to look after them. As mentioned above, catfish can not survive on scraps and algae alone; they need to be fed, and some, like bristlenoses, also need wood in the tank to aid their digestion.

 

[community begginer]

is it a must to provide shrimps with algea?, considering there is no algea in the tank and the set up is relativley new. im more looking for a fish or "creature" that will eat leftover food and such.
regards community begginer

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Not all shrimp need algae. In fact, ghost shrimp are just fine with food (flakes or pellets).

In all honesty, I agree with oohfeeshy and all other similar responses. If you want an animal to pick up scraps, shrimp'd work well.

What do you feed your cories? I ask, since adding shrimp would be ok if they could get at the uneaten flakes and some corydora food.

 

[Marcos]

I have a couple of Bristlenose Catfish that do a good job of keeping algae under control and hoover the substrate for any food left by others. To suppliment their diet you can drop an algae tablet in every couple of days and they also seem to love frozen daphnia.

 

[community begginer]

i just feed my corries flake foods just like the rest of my fish.
is this ok?
regards
community begginer

 

[dwarfgourami]

You may also want to give them specially formulated catfish or cory food, and they will love a treat of bloodworms or daphnia once or twice a week; you can buy it jellied or frozen.
Be careful not to overfeed and to do a regular gravel vac once a week at least; a dirty substrate can be particularly harmful for corys. And as I said before, any fish you bring it to clear up the waste is going to be producing waste of its own. So the best thing is not to create too much waste in the first place.

 

[EasterIslandMan]

I think I remember reading a "pinned" forum about this, you may want to check it out.