Bluespotted Garra

Never owned these but have seen em on tv. There also know as Doctor fish very interesting lil fishy's you should look em up under the name doctor fish.

I have 5 garras in my 55G. They were sold to me as Khasi Garra (Indian red-tail) but I'm not sure if they are. For one, they are grayish silver with no hint of red anywhere and they do have a small blue spot behind their gills. Most of the pics on the web were not clear enough so it could either be Khasi Garra or blue spotted Garra.

Anyway, these are very peaceful algae eaters. They love to chase each other and can move very fast so they can stress slower moving fish. They go crazy at feeding time competing with other fish for food. The five in my tank are becoming a little more territorial, but only chase each other, not other fish. They also leave my RCS and Amanos alone. I might have to reduce the population down to three and transfer two to another tank. In terms of algae control, they do a fair job. They won't eat BBA, nibble on everything else, and love brown algae. They are not the Dr. fish (Garra ruffa) but will come up and playfully suck on your hand and arm when you do maintenance in the tank. Once in a while, I'll scoop one out of the water then let it back in. In a minute or two, it'll be right back playing with my hand again.

If you want a slower moving Garra that won't scare other fish, go with the Panda Garra. $12 is about the right price for those. I got my Garras for $2.50 each at a LFS, but they haven't carried them for about 8 months now.

Come to think of it, I think Frank sold a "redtail" or "redspot" garra not too long ago, maybe he realized it was misidentified as well and changed it to bluespotted.

These garras are a little over 2" right now. Their body build is very similar to a red-tailed shark, but they move much quicker. I don't think they need to be kept in a school so 1 or 2 should be fine. From the way they chase each other in my tank, I would give around 15-20 gallons of space per fish. It's funny how they move so fast when chasing each other. Reminds me of road runner/speedy gonzalez. The chase would be over within seconds and can take place over three quarters of the tank. Other fish in the tanks just ignore them or get out of their way. I haven't seen any fin damage, though. They will eat flake & pellets. Sometimes at night I'll throw in a couple Hikari algae wafers for them to munch on.