whats the best house keeper

hopkinsonpeter · Post by **hopkinsonpeter** » 29 Oct 2004, 12:32

I have a community tank with alsorts in I'm wanting a catfish with nice looks but mainly good glass cleaning skills I have a nice L333 to look at so need a practical cat now. Any idea's

Post by **Coryman** » 29 Oct 2004, 13:31

Knowing what the other tank mates are would help. Otocinclus pound for pound are the the best algae eaters in the hobby but I would not suggest adding them until I know what they are going in with.

Ian

Post by **Barbie** » 29 Oct 2004, 14:37

Would you please add your location to your profile? It's covered in our Rules section, and it can help us to help you!

Barbue

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 30 Oct 2004, 09:15

I disagree with Coryman, except in a nice, planted community or South American setup.
Any other setup, including cichlid-tanks, Central Americanbiotopes, West African, Rift (Tanganyika Malawi) etc:

Ancistrus domesticus (Common Bristlenose; brown or albino), with the runner-up being L144.

cleans like a big Oto, but is much tougher and can adapt to a wide arrange of waterparameters, co-inhabitants etc

Post by **Coryman** » 30 Oct 2004, 12:09

sidguppy,

The big problem with using Ancistrus in planted aquaria is that once the algae is consumed, which they can do very quickly, they start grazing on the plants and they soon become shredded. I know you can feed them veggie stuff but then they get accustomed to that and leave the algae alone.

I have a heavily planted tank full of Corys and Danios that had an algae problem because of the lighting used to grow the plants. I put 4 Otocinclus hasimani in and after about two weeks the algae was almost none existent, Well at least it was not a problem any more. The bonus factor is they are happily breeding in there and now there are at least 20 that I can see.

Ian

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 30 Oct 2004, 15:17

That's odd!
I use Ancistrus in many tanks (as many others), and unlike true scrappies like Hypostomus, Panaque or Pterygoplichthys, I've never had a regular Ancistrus damage the plants.

I agree on Oto's being very good algae-eaters; unfortunately they're so fragile.....
dropping dead at the drop of a hat, really.
maybe it's the tapwater over here, but unless you have really soft water and a pH of 7 or lower; IME they don't last long at all.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 30 Oct 2004, 15:28

I think it depends on the plants. My Ancistrus don't touch java fern or anubias, will eat amazon swords if hungry and will demolish things like cabomba.

Maybe we should list what plants are safe with what genera rather than the other way around? Now that would be a good article...

Anyway, we can't answer the question without knowing where in the world the fish tank is and what other fish are going in.

Jools

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 30 Oct 2004, 18:30

That's a good one Jools!
maybe we can make a Sticky of a subject like that?
for example:
"Plants suitable for the catfish-tank", and then for each plant a common name, the scientific name, country of origin (for the biotope-purists out here), the requirements (amount of light, fertilizer, fragility, temperature, pH range etc), pro's and con's; and the suitable algae-cleaners?

If more people tune in, we can make it a nice, big, fat, sticky post wich a lot of people can use?

I volunteer for a fair list of plants;
Nymphea lotus, Anubias spp, Vallisneria, Aponogeton, Crinum, Cryptocoryne spp, Echinodorus etc.

It would be even better if more people use their expertise on one species (more data), because what goes in one tank, won't work in another; but people can 'average' between a few opinions and see if a particular plant is suitable for their tank.

metallhd · Post by **metallhd** » 31 Oct 2004, 03:42

Interesting thread . . . my albino ancistrus don't touch the plants, I have crypts, java fern both normal and windhoevia and java moss, a big sword, and some hygro siamensis. The otos hang on the hygro leaves but they are right in the flow of the filter so they don't do much cleaning there. I think my guys are too well fed to eat the plants!

I also have 4 Hemmigrammus caudovittatus (Beunos Aires Tetras), they grow to about 10 cm and are supposed to be notorious plant eaters, again, my guys don't touch the plants at all. I have very little algae and the clown loaches seem expert at keeping the snail population just enough in check to allow them the occasional little snackies

Since it is supposed to be an Amazon biotope (tetras/catfish and the very rare S. American clown loach

) I have very low pH 6.5 buffered with peat moss since the water here is ferociously hard, soap has no lather at all.

My two cents . . .

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 31 Oct 2004, 08:39

South American loach?
there's no such thing!

however there ARE loachlike fishes in South America well worth keeping: Ituglanis, Eremophilus and Trichomycterus.
they look a LOT like loaches, except for the head; instead of a high narrow head, they have a flat broad one.

They behave -in general- like MOJO-Loaches (Misgurnis); very peaceful, shy and easy to keep.
I've had Ituglanis for years and years.
hard to come by, but well worth it once you can.