algae eater for a discus community tank

[leeg]

Today I went to a fish store and asked the guy if any of the algae eaters are compatiable with my discus and he simply says it will be all good and persuades me to buy a large pleco for my tank, which made me feel uneasy about this issue. So I told him I will think about it. Anyways which are the best type of algae eater that would not harm my discus?

[kim03]

I have 4 otos in my tank and they do a SUPER job at clearing my algae. I originally had 6 but one die in the bag on the way home and one more died two days later, but I have read that they can die easily due to being wild-caught and other things like that. The 4 remaining are strong and will eat algae, flake, shrimp pellet, and lettuce.

Anyways, I used to have a lot of algae but a couple of days after getting them, algae was almost completely gone! They even cleaned the algae off the suctions holding my heater. As for being compatible with discus, my otos do not bother the discus one bit. When they were first introduced into the tank, one oto tried to suck on the tail of the discus but that was the only time I've seen that happen.

I would greatly recommend otos but I've heard BN pleco are good too, tho I have no experience with them.

[wolfbane]

IME Bristlenose are good discus tankmates, mine keep the glass and wood clean, and stay away from the discus. The discus sometimes pick at the zucchini I put in for the BN, Lol, maybe they are just curious.

Debbie

[nacra99]

he simply says it will be all good and persuades me to buy a large pleco for my tank, which made me feel uneasy about this issue.

hi Leeg!
Yup... i would definitely feel uneasy also upon hearing those words. Some common plecos (Liposarcus for example) can grow to over a foot and a half! So clearly the biggest might not always be the best. It also depends on your tank size. 2 rubber plecos (L-56)) keep my 75 gal pretty clean.

Others that i have kept before without much problems are zebras, gold nuggets and albino bristlenose.

hth
Marc

[RyanH]

Your instincts served you well. :)

As common plecos grow larger, they also become more carnivorous. They will often get a taste for fish slime and can attach to your Discus and feed on their slime coat. Obviously, not a good idea.

I have bristlenose plecos in nearly all of my Discus tanks and have had no problems. Bristlenose are also much smaller as adults compared to common plecos.

Getting a second opinion was a good call. :thumbsup:

hth
-Ryan

[Bainbridge Mike]

Most of the pleco's in the ancistrus family are small (6" and under) and should be ok. This includes the bristle or bushy nose and other neat looking fish.

Mike

[leeg]

well my tank is a 38 gallon with 3 medium sized discus, 2 angels, 10 cardinal tetra'sone kribensis, and two pea puffers (I know its a bit over crowded and some of the tankmates are not compatiable, please dont flame me)

I will either buy an bushynose pleco or a gold nugget one. How about chinese algae eaters are they good for discus tanks?

[tlum]

No for Chinese algae eaters. They are the trouble makers in a fish tank. They attacked slow swimming fish.

Terry

[wolfbane]

Chinese algae eaters killed my daughters goldfish, practically skinned them alive, during one night.

[discusdave]

I have had plecs that will attach and eat the slime off the sides of Discus. They can be so persistent that they can injur the Discus's skin. Some Otocinclus will do this as well. I have had it happen, as well as a friend of mine in a planted tank.

With Otos, I think it depends on the fish. The one that sucked the slime on my friend's discus was one of many. It got so bad she started calling him "Jaws." Finally, she gave it to me and I put it in a non-Discus planted tank.

Dave

[Scott S.]

I've only had 1 incident with plecos. Recently one of my 3 6" commons attached to one of my African Cichlids. I didn't see the fish in the act, however, there was a large patch of messed up scales on my cichlid.

It's been about 2 months now and I haven't had any more incidents.

I'm just sure to keep my plecos well fed. :)

[leeg]

hmm this is worrying me, I am having second thoughts of adding an algae eater into my discus tank. What is the abosolutely safest algae eater for discus? If there isnt any then ill have to remove algae the old fashioned way, a scrub. :(