Cleaning Crew

[Chad]

Hi all...
I'd like to ask your opinion of my soon to be cleaning crew. Along with 4-5 Red Eyed Tetras and 4-5 Platy's, I was thinking of putting 2-3 Cory's and 4-5 oto's. Maybe a handful of shrimp.
My question is, do you think this will be overkill? Do they all do the same thing in the same places? My understanding is that oto's will clean the sides of the tanks really well, cory's will clean the bottom, and shrimp will take care of the plants.
What do you think?
Thanks!

Chad

 

[elmj]

actually the otto cat cleans not just the side of the tank not sure about other people's otto cat but my cleans the plants(the most!), sometimes the floor and the sides of the tank.

then shrimp cleans the plants and the floor

the corys cleans the plants(occationally), the floor(most often)

so if you intend on buying all three, they may be doing overlapping jobs. plus otto cats have a high dying rate but once they survive, they will live for a long time in your tank! however, soon all the algea will be depleted in your tank and you may have to buy the hikari algea tablets to supplement. and the problem with shrimps is that they eat all the rubbish, thus tend to produce alot of waste also!

hope that helps!

 

[NJ Devils Fan]

What size tank are you talking about?

 

[Chad]

Guess the tank size would help. Sorry!
I'm going to be starting a 29g tank with the above mentioned fish. Still debating whether to have live plants or fake. Kinda depends on whether I think I have the time to be trimming plants or not.
So, maybe if I decide not to buy the oto's but maybe buy a few more cory's and shrimp that this ought to do the trick?

Chad

 

[TKOS]

This shouldn't be overkill for the tank. Ottos tend to eat the algae and cories don't. They both do kind of different jobs and are both useful, though both will need additional food. They won't survive long on scavenging. I buy sinking tablets for my cories and they get a couple a day as I don't over feed my other fish enough for much left over food. The shrimp will pretty much scavenge what ever they come across and do not add a lot to the bio load. They would all be fine in the tank with some tetras.

 

[Chad]

Ok then, will oto's eat leftovers on the bottom if there are any? I guess what I'm trying to do is eliminate what I don't need. If I'm careful and not overfeed, then I really don't need the cory's, right?

 

[1 fish 2 fish]

I keep corys because they are fun fish, not because I need them.

 

[ChilDawg]

Originally posted by Chad
Ok then, will oto's eat leftovers on the bottom if there are any? I guess what I'm trying to do is eliminate what I don't need. If I'm careful and not overfeed, then I really don't need the cory's, right?

Nobody really needs Cories, but they are nice to have in a tank...I feed mine supplemental food every other day or so with one whole-tank fast day each week.

The Oto that I've kept will pounce on food on the floor every so often, but he would much rather munch on algae. I would not suggest adding Otos until the tank is established, and I would make sure to avoid any with "hollow bellies" as they tend to not have the bacterial symbionts necessary to digest cellulose.

By the way, you will need to clean a tank no matter what is added to it, as there will be build-up of harmful metabolites in the water regardless of types of fish kept.

 

[TKOS]

Everybody needs to add cories because they are so cute.

 

[ChilDawg]

Well, yeah...that is a good reason to upgrade Cories to necessary status!

I think that a shoal of them running around a tank is one of the most magnificent sights available to an aquarist...add 'em if you got room!