Talk to me About Bottom Feeders Please

Some people are kinda against the idea of using plecos as clean up crews for algae only. i really dont see why that is a problem. altho i do think it is important to make sure your plecos eat a varied diet as well. ill try to throw in extra blood worms krill or sinking pellets before i turn off the lights.

i think the type of bottom feeder you want will depend mostly on the size of tank your going to have and the size of its inhabitants. id recommend oto's, bristlenose plecos, or common plecos.

oto's are very small and grow to 1.5" tops. slim shape so they can easily be eaten by larger fish.

bristlenose plecos will get to about 4-5".

common pleco's will get up to 24", ive seen very few that big.

all are good at cleaning up algae. id probably recommend the common pleco for a tank above 75 gallons, and otos and bristlenose plecos for everything less and taking into account the size off the other fish your adding when picking which one.

ok.
I have had upside down cats nice but can grow, syno featherfin, plecs gibbiceps, common plec corys of all kinds. So have kept alot,,... Some have been hard to keep sme not, some grow big, some dont. Depending on tank size, what u going to put in the tankm,not just fish, but structure and plants, this is what u have to decide. I would decide on the fish u want to keep then aquascape around them..

BRISTLENOSE PLECS ARE GREAT FISH, LEAVE A LOT OF POO BEHIND LIKE ALL PLECS BUT DONT GROW THAT BIG AND CAN BE SEEN IN DAYLIGHT.

I would go with them or cories, i have 6 young cories for my next breeding project along with adolfi, peppered and albino cries all in different tanks..

If u need any help just pm me, i will pass on the knowledge i gained from this site.
Regards,
Denis

I have 2 common plecos. One is about 10", the other a bit bigger, and is what petsmart calls a chocolate albino, he is yellowish colored with a spot behind is eye. They are both about a yr old now, and are growing, but slower now than when they were younger. They are definately not algae eaters, though love wafers, cukes, brocoli, and greenbeans. Also shrimp pellets, and tubifax worms. They need driftwood for their digestion, and they are very strong fish. They will wreck any plants you put in the tank, unless under big rocks, and they are becoming territorial, one on each side of my tank, and when they swim over the line they whack each other with their tails. They are beautiful fish, but am thinking of rehoming one as they are just getting too aggressive with each other.

Just get a school of otos and some amano shrimps. Your algea problem should be solved. Plecos are u-gly if ask me, and boring looking too. Well maybe the exotic looking one but those usually need a big tank.

Unless you want to be over run with LF plecos in a year or so, separate the males from the females when they are old enough to tell the sex. They tend to be like underwater rabbits, if you get my drift ! This is the only thing that has stopped me from getting some LF 144s so far. I don't have the room for a bunch, and I need to sort out the plecos I have to see where I will put them. But rest assured, the boys and girls will be separated ! Good luck.

Even though a fish as sold as an algae eater, it is a mistake to believe that by using the term "algae" that it includes all types of algae. There is no fish that eats ALL types of algae. And the term "bottomfeeder" means just that.......they eat from the bottom rather than eating food out of the water column like many other fish do.

Absolutely no critter eats green spot algae. It's too hard to get off the surface. This is an algae that needs manual removal by scraping or scrubbing.

SAE's are terrific at eating algaes like staghorn and BBA. They eat algeas that they can chew. They do not have sucker mouths so they can not suck soft algaes that grow as soft films. SAE's are both bottom feeders and water column feeders. Mine catch worms in the water column just fine! They grow to about 6" so the bigger they get, the more difficult it becomes for them to get in and around the base of plants to clean up leftover fish food. If there is not enough algae in the tank to keep them well fed, they will eat fish food and worms. They have big appetites and most people do not have enough of the type of algae they eat to keep them from starving.

Otos and Ancistrus species (also called bristlenose and bushynose...all the same species of fish) have sucker mouths and can only suck their food into their mouths. These two species of fish will keep your tank free of the soft, non-filamentous algeas which are diatom and biofilm (awfuchs). Biofilm is a normal part of every tank. It cannot even be seen on some surfaces with the naked eye, but it is there, always. On all surfaces in the tank.....glass, gravel, plants, filter intakes, heaters. Biofilm can get thicker on your glass if you don't routinely wipe your glass down when you do tank maintenance. A lot of discus keepers like to use these suckermouth fish in the bare tanks just to keep the biofilm down. Otos and ancistrus are strictly bottom feeders. They are not able to catch food in the water column because of the way their mouths are designed. They can however suck regular fish foods from the substrate or something flat that supports their body. They are efficient soft algae eaters and most tanks cannot grow enough food to sustain these fish on soft algae only. They must be supplemented regularly.

Cories are just bottomfeeders. They consume food from the bottom of the tank or from somewhere that it has settled flat like on a rock or a plant leaf. Their mouths are designed specifically to eat this way and they do it very efficiently, having barbels to be able to root in the substrate. While they may on occasion be able to grab something like a worm from the water column, I've never seen it happen. I wouldn't think it would be very easy for them to do with the downward shape of their mouths. Cories do not eat any algae. They are very good at getting around the base of plants scavaging for bits and pieces of food that other fish cannot reach. If you are feeding the rest of your tank inhabitants sparingly, you need to recognize that cories may not be getting enough food from the bottom so you need to be sure the cories get their fair share of food.

Loaches are both bottom feeders and water column feeders. With the exception of the weather loach and hillstream loach that have sucker type mouths, most loach mouths are formed angled downward a bit for bottom feeding and they have barbels to be able to dig in the substrate. They do not eat algae but are good at getting in between the plant stems and around the base of the plants and in the substrate scavaging for bits of trapped food that other fish can't reach. It's really cool to watch a clown loach move gravel with their mouths, once piece at a time, to get to something in the gravel that they want to eat.

Hope this helps to explain a bit about what these fish can and cannnot eat and what someone's expectations can generally be if adding these fish to the tank.

That was helpful to me, Debbi. Thank you.