Ideal Cleanup Crew?

[Kingfisher]

Hello

So my next step to having a mini Amazon river in my fish tank is to purchase a cleanup crew. What might be the best shrimps, fish and snails for this job? Also, when do you think is the best time to plant them? Thank you for your input......this community is awesome!

[TonyAPBTx]

Going from a book I have handy, here are some suggestions for bottom feeders for an Amazon bio-type.

Emerald Catfish
Blue-Eyed Panaque
Bristle-Nose Catfish (HIGHLY recommended around here)
Whiptail Catfish

Hope that helps.

[2wheelsx2]

Blue-Eyed Panaque

You can get quite a few Discus for the price of one of those, like about 3 breeding pairs. :D

[TonyAPBTx]

:D

I see a picture of it barely in the book I have. No idea at all it was that much, haha.

[TonyAPBTx]

From personal experience though I would use the Emeralds. I have had them in the past and they great and get pretty big for cory cat fish types.

The bristlenose pleco is a fish I'm trying to get a hold of now but no one locally seems to be able to get it for me. Sucks.

If you can get the above a whiptail may be a really nice different addition, especially if some driftwood is in the tank.

[yikesjason]

A school of corys would be good too.

[Kingfisher]

I was thinking about a school of cory. Then maybe a few otos to eat algae. I here the plecos poo alot. Maybe one or two sae? Anyone have success with Amano shrimps?

[2wheelsx2]

I here the plecos poo alot. Maybe one or two sae?

Common misconception. Nothing will eat fish feces. If you think about it, what nutritional value is left in it? Plecos in general will rival your discus for feces. And herbivorous wood eaters will generate more output than any discus.

[Stussi613]

Common misconception. Nothing will eat fish feces. If you think about it, what nutritional value is left in it? Plecos in general will rival your discus for feces general. And herbivorous wood eaters will generate more output than any discus.

This is 100% true, I have a 3" BN pleco in my 60g and I'm looking for some good quality Sterbai Cory's to replace him with...the amount of poop he puts out is incredible and I'm sick of taking my tank apart to clean up everything he's been dropping.

[Kingfisher]

I was thinking about a school of cory. Then maybe a few otos to eat algae. I here the plecos poo alot. Maybe one or two sae? Anyone have success with Amano shrimps?

Sorry, what I meant was I don't like plecos because they poo too much. I want some corys, sae and some amano shrimps. Only prob with the shrimps is that the discus might eat them. Don't they also eat plants?

[2wheelsx2]

Doh! Sorry, it was me who misread. :D

Yeah, plecos generate a lot of poop. Amanos are good if you get big ones and they have places to hide. They do cleanup and eat algae, but will not touch your plants.

[wesleydnunder]

I have albino bushy nosed plecos, otos, amano shrimp, blue neocardina shrimp, kuhli loaches, ramshorns and spiky nerite snails in my 125g discus tank. They do a good job keeping the tank clean.

Mark

[ExReefer]

I agree that the pleco produces a lot waste, but I need him. My planted tank produces brown algae on the back glass wall and on the melon sword plant leaves up close to the light source. I need my pleco to clean these areas. I have an SAE to clean up the filament algae that I get from time to time. Every clean up crew member has a purpose in my tank. My school of Julii cories clean up uneaten food.

I do notice tons of tiny feces during my water changes. It’s just part of the maintenance.

[scottishbloke]

I have to agree 100% about plecos and poop- I had 3 albino "lemon" bushynoses but recently sold off 2 of them because the pile of cack they collectively dumped every night was more than that of all my heavily-fed discus combined!! Even the one that remains still produces quite a big pile that must be removed daily. In addition, I have an old otto (5+ years) from my pre-discus days and a 1'' juvie Chinese Butterfly loach, which looks kind of like a tiny spotted ray and does an amazing job of scouring the tank glass clean for his small size. I do have 2 two-inch Bamboo shrimp in the tank too (about 3 years old), which brush minor debris from my Anubias planted driftwood, and some really tiny unidentified snails whose clean up contribution is negligible at best.

Colin

[blkg35]

I would be careful with the otos and discus. Some love to suck the slime off the discus. But definitely a school of corys would do a good job cleaning the leftover food. Nerite snails do a good job cleaning algae as well as albino bushynose plecos.