What Are The Best Algae Eaters for Discus

[Wahter]

I have had some parotocinclus - these actually spawned for me, but the babies were so tiny, I think either they were sucked up into the filter or the discus gobbled them up. Unfortunately a few died off and I think my remaining two are both females.

Good fish though - very peaceful.



Walter

[fishorama]

Nice fish Wahter. So cool you spawned them. I'm hoping if I find them again I'll be able to sex them. Is the male papillia (or whatever it's called) easy to see? Darn bifocals makes it a challenge to see well in LFS sometimes.

[Wahter]

Here are some more photos. A female parotocinclus. A fry with my thumb (that's a brown discus in the background). A close up of the fry.



Walter

[Apistomaster]

Wahter,
Very cool. They may be the very similar Hisonotus leuofrenatus.
In either case, ripe females become very fat and the males stay slender. Males are only about 3/4 as large as the females whether Hisonotus or P. spilosoma.
Here the only photo I took of my P. spilosoma. They may be too small to sex when you first find them so buy all you can to be sure you get both sexes. They are usually quite cheap.


I would set up the albino long fin Bushy Nose in a 20 long. You need not use a 50 gal tank to breed them. You can keep Cherry Shrimp and small peaceful tetras with the breeding Albinon Long Fin Bushy Noses. They are very demanding fish. Just give them a cave and some extra wood to provide some hiding places and a spawning site.
KFeed them well and some times skip water changes for 2 weeks then perform several large water changes in a row. That will often induce the bushy noses to spawn. Even if it doesn't the first time, as long as you have a pair and are patience they will spawn.

[fishorama]

Super pics Walter!

Hmm, Larry I was remembering the "parotos" I saw as having a more round spotted look but it's been quite a while. Nice looking fish.

[Apistomaster]

Super pics Walter!

Hmm, Larry I was remembering the "parotos" I saw as having a more round spotted look but it's been quite a while. Nice looking fish.

There are several Parotocinclus species which may be found mixed in with P. jumbo and not all have even been scientifically described so I can make errors in identification and maybe even Wahter ID was off. It looked more like the Hisonotus to me. There is an extensive write up about this group on planetcatfish.com in "Shane's World" and just from that article you can see that there are many species which are difficult to identify. Only if you know accurate collecting location information can you be very certain which fish you actually have.