Bottom feeder for 20 long

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Dazydaizee

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Oct 11, 2010
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I'm messing around with my 20 gallon long a little and looking for advice on suitable bottom feeders. Right now there are some female endler's and I just added 2 golden wonder killifish in an attempt to control the population a bit (females have been separated for a couple months, but still popping out babies).

I've had to remove the trapdoor & apple snails because they were getting their antennas nipped off by the endler's. The trapdoors wouldn't even come out in that tank because they were getting picked at so frequently. There are small snails in there as well, but I'm looking for something a bit more effective and interesting to add.

I have kuhli loaches & young bristlenose plecos in my larger tank, and some cories in another. I've been thinking about clearing out some more space on the bottom to add cories, but not sure if the tank will be large enough for a group of them. I'd rather not put kuhlis or plecos in this tank, either, but have been trying to find out if another type of loach would work here. I really do like eel-like fish and fish with a lot of personality, but many I've looked into get too big for this tank. I'm limited with what I can have in my other tanks because of my dwarf shrimp and the tiny male endler's, so I'd like to explore my options a bit here.

Thanks!

(Tank on top is the 20 long with a 10 gallon that I've got NO clue what I'm doing with underneath)
 

Dazydaizee

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Oct 11, 2010
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Also, the tank will be upgraded to a Rena Filstar xp1 once my xp2 arrives for my larger tank, and it's 78-80 degrees, pH 7.6-7.8, plenty of live plants and driftwood.
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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How about a group of pygmy cory?
 

theemon

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Jun 14, 2009
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a blue crayfish is also an opion. they are too slow to catch fish, really. they just cant be kept with aggressive fish or giant finned fish that are slow moveing. ive kept crays for 5 years or more, with very very few fish deaths(only 2, and they were giant finned slow moving fish) i keep crays with most all my fish
 

theemon

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Jun 14, 2009
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yes, very. im glad u mentioned that actually, because i totally forgot to pay attention to those plants, they do look real.

they dont seem to mess with mosses too much, maybe because the moss grows faster then they can eat it? i dunno. but crays would destroy those stemmed plants
 

thebrandon

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Jan 29, 2009
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My most recent cray ignored all of my plants except my java moss. She completely tore it to bits. All of my other plants she completely ignored or just climbed around on. She was also great with fish, didn't touch any of my larger fish, and my ropefish would often rest underneath her. It was weird but cool.

She was in a tank with bichirs, ropefish, peacock eel and a severum.

With many crays it really just depends on the individual cray. I've had some that had to be kept by themselves, and others that could be kept with big fish, but not small fish, small fish but not big fish, plants, no plants fake or not, ect. I've had crays ever since I started the hobby and no one is ever really the same.

I wouldn't suggest a cray at all though for a 20 long. It's not a very tall tank, and if the cray wanted to, it could easily catch your smaller fish.
 
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