Plecos
- Thread starter silversp0rt
- Start date
which clean the best?you do.these fish might be scavengers but unless you put these fish on a very fine substrate it won't matter which cleans the best.all of the fish you listed like to sift through the substrate to look for food.in the wild these fish eat small insects invertibrates and small organisims that are found on the bottom.in a tank these same fish will compete for flake tablets pellets whatever you feed then.now heres where the fine substrate comes in.in a normal tank with standard gravel these fish can't really penetrate the lower levles of the gravel,negating the benifits of constant sifting for food.on a fine substrate the fish can easily move the substrate around to find food.heck scavengers seem worse than other fish in this aspect of the subject,because to feed them properly you must get food to the bottom so they can eat.when they eat most kinda hold the food aginst the gravel to keep if from moving.after they are done eating it seems more food in the gravel than in the fishes bellys.but that's just my opinion.
No chinese Algae Eaters.....unless you have an algae problem, they do clean the algea well, BUT they are not the friendliest fish in the tank and they can turn on the others, and they are hard to catch to get rid of them when the problem is gone.
Siamese are much better citizens in the tank and they do a nice job. I have 2 SAE's in my 55gal and they do a nice job and also pal around alot.
Plecos can get pretty large, I like Corys they don't bother the other fish and they stay fairly small (about 3") and mine is very active cleaning.
A combination is a good idea...ghost shrimp in the mix are a cheap source of bottom cleaners. But no matter how many of these you have you'll still need to vacuum the gravel.
Siamese are much better citizens in the tank and they do a nice job. I have 2 SAE's in my 55gal and they do a nice job and also pal around alot.
Plecos can get pretty large, I like Corys they don't bother the other fish and they stay fairly small (about 3") and mine is very active cleaning.
A combination is a good idea...ghost shrimp in the mix are a cheap source of bottom cleaners. But no matter how many of these you have you'll still need to vacuum the gravel.
I was told not to remove the fish from the tank when I vaccuum, so I just remove the plants and decorations. I vaccuum every week or so, just because my gravel looks sparkling clean but it always ends up full of waste and uneaten fish food. (Really gross) I mean, my fish are smart enough to get out of the way of the vaccuum.
I never remove my plants to vacuum the gravel. I pretty sure most people don't worry about doing a real thorough job of vacuuming the gravel around their plants either. Your plants will make use of it, just a quick zip over to get the larger pieces of debris. Besides, why bother letting the plants root if you're just going to yank em out every week to clean.