tank mates for planted tanks!

[limige]

ok, i know corydora's are good for eating leftovers and are good tankmates for discus.

phil, you stated that the malaysian trumpet snails are good for cleaning through the sand. but i understand they can reproduce too much and be a problem.

cloan loaches are supposed to be good for keeping snails in check but can uproot some plants right?!

now are ghost shrimp good tankmates? will they withstand temps?

what are some others to consider and what are the benefits and drawbacks?

mike

[jules]

Clown loaches are good at eating uneaten tidbits and Snails; however they definitely like munching on plants- especially the ones with soft/thin leaves. I moved a large aponogeton ulvaceus I just got to another tank because I think it would have disappeared by the morning.

[Paulio]

Pakistani loach stay small and dont bother plants. Ghost shrimp will make a nice snack for bigger Discus.

Paul

[maciekquattro]

Hi I keep these in planted tank.
Fire eel,rummynose tetra,cardinal tetra,glass catfish,banjo catfish,siamese algae eater.Plecos:Golden nugget,red leopard,albino,queen arabesque, and some different corys .

[ChloroPhil]

All of those suggestions are good. I personally prefer Pakistani or Tiger loaches to Clowns as they stay smaller and are friendlier to plants.

As for the Malaysian snails, they do reproduce, but aren't nearly the problem that regular snails are. For the most part they stay in the gravel and usually only come out at night. Think of them as worms for the aquarium; it's hard to have too many.

[Haywire]

After a few months on a central system I find that my block sponge is covered with little malaysian snails, some are even stuck within the sponge.

And my clown loaches don't touch the malaysians, every other snail has been eradicated.

[Abercrombie6202]

Um... I think botias and relatives of the clown loach and cories are "good" tank mates. Shrimp i don't think are the best with discus becasue if the discus are big enough they may try to eat the shrimp and those are pretty expensive snacks, like my amano shrimp are probably small enough to get eaten by discus if i were to put the shrimp in the discus aquarium.

[JMIZ16]

Hi guys,
First of all I never heard of clown loaches that are vegatarians. They are like the cat fish of the east. They eat anything eddible that falls down and any snail they can fit in thier mouths.( They also make a clicking noise that you can here outside the tank). They are very shy and need some type of tight hidding place. Bamboo shoot, pvc or a lot of woodwork. They grow very slowly so dont worry about size. They are one of the oldest living fish 60-80 years. We have also not been succesfull as fishkeepers to breed them. So keep in mind that they are all wild caught! Clown loaches are also highly suseptable to disease( they dont have scales).
The other thing is that most algae eaters will eat your plants to and get very large. There are onle about 5 Plecotomas' that wont eat your plants. All plecos need driftwood to munch on as well. The bristlenose pleco is the most effeciant and least damaging to plants. SAE and Ottos are the 2 best to combine IMO, they are also the smallest. AND DONT BUY FLYINGFOX'S IN MISTAKE OF SAE'S.
All other cats uproot plants( cory, syn.)

[Emanuel]

I can attest that clown loaches will damage your plants. In several tanks where I added clown loaches the plants suffered shortly after. Apparently the loaches like to nibble at the apical shoot meristem (young emerging leaves) at night and the new leaves come out with holes or not at all. The plants affected were from various species, including amazon swords and even anubia nana. Whenever I removed the loaches from the affected tanks, the plants recovered shortly thereafter.

[ChloroPhil]

apical shoot meristem (young emerging leaves)

By george, I think we've got a botanist in the group! Welcome Emmanuel.

[Emanuel]

Hi Phil, thanks for the welcome, although I've been lurking here since last June. Strictly speaking, I'm not a botanist but I have done research with several plant species. Back to the original poster's question: I keep trumpet snails in my tanks and have never experienced an epidemic. They recycle dead leaves, food and fish waste very efficiently and also help aerate the plant roots by digging in the substrate. I also keep several SAEs for algae control but IMHO they are not very helpful. I've not had good luck with ottos, they seem to last a month at most. My favorite discus mates are a school of cardinal tetras; my dream is to breed them in captivity. :)

[Wahter]

Hi guys,
First of all I never heard of clown loaches that are vegatarians. The bristlenose pleco is the most effeciant and least damaging to plants. SAE and Ottos are the 2 best to combine IMO, they are also the smallest. AND DONT BUY FLYINGFOX'S IN MISTAKE OF SAE'S.
All other cats uproot plants( cory, syn.)


I can also attest that the clown loaches I've had definitely had a taste for new shoots of sword plants, some crypts, and anubias. Lots of small "horseshoe" shaped holes. ;D ;D

I've never had a corydoras nor synodontis uproot the plants in my tanks though (not yet anyway). :P

I think SAEs work best IF they don't have anything to eat but algea.

Here's a good article about SAEs:

http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/cyprinid.html