PlanetCatfish.com

I want a scavenger catfish for my 75g to clean up any uneaten food. I know cories and loaches fit the bill but I want to conserve tank space and not use it on another school. Basically Im looking for a 4"-5" bottom feeder that isn't social and is safe with small tetras.

Try Synodontis.

or try a single hoplosternum.

unlike Syno's, these will root the substrate too, and will "scavenge" a lot better than any Syno.
fits better with tetra's as well.

Yeh anything like hoplos or flagtailed porthole catfish would do perfectly, other than this i would actually recommend most loaches over catfish for scavanger duties..

Ben

best not do flagtales unless you want to get at least 4; this species is not a solo, but a true shoaler.

it IS highly suitable for a 75G and perfectly peaceful, though!

Yes sorry i did mean to say "a small group of". I have 4 flagtails in a 60G although they are going to have to go in to my 50G soon when the 60G gets torn apart to make way for my new 6 x 2 x 2ft tank for big catfishes!

Ben

a 50G is plenty big enough for a bunch of Dianema.
ever considered buying more?

my riverine tank is already overstocked, but I'd like to hear (and see pix!) of someone keeping 8 or so.

a long time ago I had 8 portholes (D longibarbis) in a setup and it worked out pretty OK.

I know the 50G is big enough, its just i have quite a few fish in there at the moment.

Although i am moving some of them to new tank this is current stocking of my 50G running on 2 Fluval 4+ Internal Filters:

- L128
- L066
- LDA33
- 2 x Syno Sp.
- 4 x "Dwarf" Syno Petricola
- "True" Syno Petricola
- 3 x Pakistani Loaches
- 3 x Zebra Loaches
- 3 x Dwarf Chain Loaches
- 5 x Boesemani Rainbows
- 2 x Kribensis Cichlids