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I have a couple of Bristlenose plecos and a couple of Otto's in different tanks. I'd like to get something different for some new tanks I'm setting up. Do you have any recommendations for some other good algae eaters that stay relatively small?

if you have a taste for weird fish and the other fish are peaceful; Sturisoma festivum is a good algae eater.
it gets long, but it's not a "big" fish, more tail than anything else.
a single fish will do fine in a 80 cm tank; a pair in a tank slightly bigger.

Any of the small Panaque species (in the shops usually called Clown Plecos). My P. maccus & P. gnomus do a great job keeping the glass, wood and broad leaved plants clean. Make sure there is some wood in the tank though, as that's an essential part of their diet. They're good looking, full of character, not too agressive, long lived and they stay small. What more can you ask for?

Panaque's have two main drawbacks however:
-they're VERY nocturnal, often they don't show up at all....
-they EAT almost any plant; first they clean off the algae, but in time, any broadleafed plant looks like it's been used as buckshotpractice after a while....A healthy Clown Pleco (P maccus) or LDA01 (King TIGER) can devour a mediumsized Swortplant in a few weeks!

Anubias too are destroyed eventually; the only plants they don't like much are Lotus or Cryptocorynes, probably due to silicates in those leaves.

I haven't found that all purpose algae eater yet ... the ancistrus stay small, and graze algae (although they like sucking on leaves better). Surprisingly my albino rainbow sharks do a good job of licking the green and brown stuff off the walls, and I have a flying fox that does a similar good job of cleaning. Those guys stay within the 4-5-6 inch size frame.

Kathy S

My experience with the small Panaques is that if you provide loads of hiding places and keep them in a small group they become a lot braver and will venture out during the day. They're my 3-year old son's favorite fish just because they are always playing hide and seek. As for damage to the plants I also don't think that's too bad. occasionally a swordplant leaf gets it but these are usually the older leaves anyway and they get damaged as a result of too vigorous a cleaning job by the Panaques. They leave all fine leaved plants alone. Supplementing their diet with vegetables helps keep the damage down.

Frank