Plants in Clay Pots

[Jack L]

Clown Plecos, Bristle Nose Plecos, and Farlowella.

stu

Clown Plecos, Bristle Nose Plecos,

do these clean anything besides wood?

[Jack L]

hmm good question. I do not have algae problems in my discus tank, but I do not use bright lighting. I use relatively dim lighting over my discus tank, but my go to fish for algae in a discus tank is ancistrus. I have 4 in my 75 gal tank. I also have 2 ottocinclus in there as well.

Jacklyn to the ancistrus clean only the wood, or do they clean glass/plants as well?
thanks

[jmf3460]

Jacklyn to the ancistrus clean only the wood, or do they clean glass/plants as well?
thanks

i have 4 ancistrus in a 75 gallon tank, it has been set up over 3 years, I have never had to clean the glass....ever. I am a huge fan of ancistrus, especially the rare species like green dragon, super red, rio Tocantins etc. I have at least one ancistrus species in every single tank I own except my shrimp tank. They are great little cleaners and their bio load is not as great as a huge pleco bc they stay relatively small. WetSpotTropicalfish.com has a wide selection of the more rare ancistrus species and crosses, but your every day common ancistrus or albino ancistrus that you can get at Petsmart (et. al) will be perfectly fine for your tank. If you don't have a lot of algae, make sure to supplement with algae sinking pellets or blanched vegetables. Mine love cucumbers/zucchini/yellow squash/broccoli most all blanched vegetables. Their favorite is squash and zucchini.

[DISCUS STU]

stu

Clown Plecos, Bristle Nose Plecos,

do these clean anything besides wood?

Yes, they clean algae on various surfaces including glass, ceramic pots, plants, etc. and that's why I have them. I use relatively bright lighting in my tanks and no longer have any issues with algae. Besides these two I also have Farlowellas for this which are interesting alien looking pleco types. Bear in mind, any Pleco must be Discus safe as Gibbiceps are notorious Discus harassers and almost always become more interested in feeding from the Discus's slime coat, thus greatly agitating the Discus. Occasionally Farlowellas will show this type of behavior but it's rare.

In a typical 60 or 90 gal. setup I may have 3-4 Clown Plecos and 1-2 Bristle Nose. After they're done with the algae they still seem to make a living in the tank eating scraps but not harassing my Discus!

[jmf3460]

Yes, they clean algae and that's why I have them.

this made me laugh out loud in my cubicle, smartass

[DISCUS STU]

this made me laugh out loud in my cubicle, smartass

No I wasn't doing that. Re-read the edited post,

[DISCUS STU]

i like the glass pots/jars for the same reason as jacklyn - i like to be able to see into the roots. i havent been using any fertilizers lately, and the plants are growing well. ive got eco complete substrate in my pots. dont forget to occasionally poke around in the pots with sticks to aerate the substrate to prevent gas pockets from forming.

my fave algae eaters are SAE (Siamese algae eaters, esp for hair algae and black beard algae) and farlowellas for cleaning of the leaves.

the nice thing about having plants in pots is that if u have multiple tanks and dont want to put algae eaters into ur main discus tank, you can just rotate potted plants from the discus tank into ur other tanks for "cleaning" by algae eaters, then rotate them back into the discus tank when the algae is gone.

Great picture! Very nice.

[Jack L]

I do not, but I will tell you I like to use glass jars even better than the clay pots, it lets me see the roots and they do not have a hole in the bottom, see these pictures. oh yea I do put a couple dots of silicone in the corners of the bottoms of my glass jars first just so its not glass on glass when I put them in the tank.
Attachment 89148Attachment 89149

don't get me wrong, the clay pots work well too but I prefer shot glasses or small mason jars bc I like to see the roots and such

i'll take a photo from underneat my tank so you can see what roots do when not in jar : )

[Jack L]

Yes, they clean algae on various surfaces including glass, ceramic pots, plants, etc. and that's why I have them. I use relatively bright lighting in my tanks and no longer have any issues with algae. Besides these two I also have Farlowellas for this which are interesting alien looking pleco types. Bear in mind, any Pleco must be Discus safe as Gibbiceps are notorious Discus harassers and almost always become more interested in feeding from the Discus's slime coat, thus greatly agitating the Discus. Occasionally Farlowellas will show this type of behavior but it's rare.

In a typical 60 or 90 gal. setup I may have 3-4 Clown Plecos and 1-2 Bristle Nose. After they're done with the algae they still seem to make a living in the tank eating scraps but not harassing my Discus!

okay, thanks. i never bothered with them, as i always read they get huge and don't eat algae, that must be the common plec.

i have 1 farlowella, wanted more but can't get them to be healthy, adding additional farlowella w/ flukes and ich killed one of my Discus last month.

i'll look into them.

[Jack L]

i have 4 ancistrus in a 75 gallon tank, it has been set up over 3 years, I have never had to clean the glass....ever. I am a huge fan of ancistrus, especially the rare species like green dragon, super red, rio Tocantins etc. I have at least one ancistrus species in every single tank I own except my shrimp tank. They are great little cleaners and their bio load is not as great as a huge pleco bc they stay relatively small. WetSpotTropicalfish.com has a wide selection of the more rare ancistrus species and crosses, but your every day common ancistrus or albino ancistrus that you can get at Petsmart (et. al) will be perfectly fine for your tank. If you don't have a lot of algae, make sure to supplement with algae sinking pellets or blanched vegetables. Mine love cucumbers/zucchini/yellow squash/broccoli most all blanched vegetables. Their favorite is squash and zucchini.

are they not okay with shrimp? i have amanos in my tank.

i'll look for some of these, thanks for website reference.

petco had a bristlnose and rubber lip, i think they are candidates, but my qtank is currently occupied.

[jmf3460]

pleco's are fine with amano. I just don't keep them with my cherry or sakura shrimp, that way the shrimp have something to eat.

[DISCUS STU]

okay, thanks. i never bothered with them, as i always read they get huge and don't eat algae, that must be the common plec.

i have 1 farlowella, wanted more but can't get them to be healthy, adding additional farlowella w/ flukes and ich killed one of my Discus last month.

i'll look into them.

Like my Discus, I always quarantine anything going into the tanks, including Plecos and Farlowella. I've lost a few Farlowella in quarantine but have about 5-6, lost count, between 3 tanks. I deworm and de fluke with PraziPro (Praziquantal) and usually add Metronidazole as well as part of my quarantine procedure.

[Jack L]

I treated this batch of Ottos with heat for ich and with prazi, I didn't realize that was for worms too, I bought it for flukes. I will look up metro, I don't have any but see it mentioned a lot

[nabilbb]

I could not find floramax in the city, to buy online, the shipping cost is really high.
any alternative?

[pitdogg2]

buy from that pet place or dr.foster smith and get enough items to qualify for free shipping that is how I do it.