cleaner with convicts

[Fuzz16]

my pleco they tore apart and thier tank has become a little mess with the babes and the parents constantly shredding plants and pooping. i do water changes one a week about 5g and its a 20gh tank.

would an oto be ok cleaning in there? or is there another type of cleaner i can put in there safely with them?

*GOLDFISH*

 

[MissFishy]

I think if they ripped up a pleco, they'll probably make a snack of an otto.

 

[FishGeek]

A cleaner is not a nessesity in every tank. They might help out a little by eating food but you still have to maintain the tank. And with a tank with a pair of Convicts nothing else will survive.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Your hand is probably the toughest cleaner you can put with them. An oto is even smaller and weaker then a pleco, so no to that.

Why though? I always try and discourage getting "cleaners". Do you have an algae problem? If so adjust lighting or water and not add fish to take care of it. And plus hardly, if any, fish will eat poop....so they just add to the bioload even more. Plecos and cleaners poop more then other fish anyway.

 

[Fuzz16]

a bit on the side, but i clean most of it off. i do often water changes, cleaning the gravel at the same time.

 

[Orion]

The best cleaning you can only do yourself. Is there a reason you want a 'cleaner fish'?

 

[Fuzz16]

no reason in particular

 

[Orion]

Then I wouldn't worry about it to much. It would be difficult to find a fish that would survive with cons in a small tank, especialy a breeding pair.

 

[homebunnyj]

If the tank is a mess, simply do water changes and vacuuming more often.... as often as it takes. It doesn't hurt anything.

 

[Big Vine]

Not that I know much about cichlids at all, but would it be totally off-base to put in some mystery snails or apple snails or something along those lines?

Big Vine

 

[BigDaddy420]

i kept 2 apple snails with a pair of breeding convicts for awhile, they tormented him, pushed him around, moved his shell around the tank. i think he was basically a moving decoration to them.

 

[Big Vine]

Hmm...sounds like what my crays do to the snails, which ultimately ended in the snails being eaten (good cray snacks though!).

So much for that idea.

I need to start learning about cichlids...lots of them sound pretty voracious, and I like that (which is why I keep crays)! Too bad my largest tank is only a 12 gallon.

Big Vine