Best bottom feeders with CA/SA's?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I would love goes but i dont think my current stock would work with them. Maybe a little too aggressive. My brother has kuhli loaches and they seem cool, funny... But the store only has tiny ones and i think they would be food.

Sent from my GT-P1000 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
Here is a question that has not been asked. How often do you feed them? And how much? What size food or type? If the food is to large the fish will take it and spit out some of it. If your overfeeding, either at each feeding time or to many times per day. The fish wont eat the food on the bottom if they know that they will be fed soon. This is just what I have learned.

I have several different types of bottom feeders in each tank. My 250 I have exotic plecos, and 2 x Delhezi Polys. The polys, plecos and the fish ALL keep the sand clean. (there are several plecos out there that do not eat algae, and actually want wood or meat) My 300 I dont have anything and no issues. My 210 I have Blythe loaches, they are awesome. In my 150 growout, I have 2 x juvie syno cats that never stop cleaning, 2 x polys waiting to go into a larger tank. And my show tank in the living room has nothing in it as well. It has fine white sand and there is never food laying on it.

So I feed my fish once at 11 a.m. and again at 8 p.m.. If due to getting to busy, I feed them at 1 p.m. and nothing the rest of the day.

Your fish will eat 100 times a day, but they are also going to get lazy and messy. So, how often do you feed, and what size pellet do you feed?
 
Like you i feed once in the morning about 9.00am and about 8.pm at night. And then i drop a few algae wafers in at lights out for my pleco. I use hikari gold small pellets and i throw a few in wait until there all gone etc. Then repeat. Although i have got it downto a T. And i get the right amount each time. I occasionally add frozen bloodworm and daphnia, which obviously causes a stir. The pellets are the correct size, and i could probably go a size larger for some of the fish. But small is okay. I will often miss a morning or evening feed and sometimes miss a whole day.

Sent from my GT-P1000 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
And your fish still dont clean up their mess? They need to be punished. :D

Well like I said, my syno's are excelent cleaners. Problem with them is if they get hungry and there is not enough food, I have found that they will swimm up onto the fish and start nibbling on the sides of your fish.

Now Polys. Thats where they feed, the bottom. All of mine swim to the top now to eat, because I dont have the food on the substrate issue.

Maybe try a different type of food. One they like more.

GL
 
HybridGS said:
Corys with RD's and Oscars? you must be mad, that will end up with a dead Cichlid with a Cory stuck in its throat.
Click to expand...

I've had Cory's with Oscar and Pacu and they were never bothered with.
 
I will clear up what i am looking for:
i am after a bottom feeder which will eat the food which falls to the sand. Not an algae eater. This is to stop wasted food and it then polluting my water, i just think its a waste me vacuuming this food when it could sustain another fish. I dont like to interfere to much within my tank, i like the idea of an eco-system. I dont overfeed, my fish are just very messy and like me they dont like to clean up their mess.

Sent from my GT-P1000 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
I have had a ton of fish in my lifetime, when they are fed right they don't just leave food on the bottom of the sand. There is something weird happening if they are. There is no fish that will just clean up your sand. If they are not eating the food, feed them something else or feed them less. If not, you are just going to have to gravel-vac more often.
 
They should be punished!

They love all their food, they just don't bother with the smaller pieces once they hit the sand. They do pick at it when i give them a starve day, but the seem to get aggressive when they miss food, especially the oscars (obviously). Which results in me giving in and feeding them. The oscars are the ones which dont like to eat off anywhere but the surface, so they should be the punished ones!

Sent from my GT-P1000 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
I would say Clown Loaches. I made the stupid mistake of getting rid of mine because they were eating my Nerite Snails and now I regret it.

They are active at all times, colorful, fun to watch and never stop searching for leftovers around the tank. I've tried Syno cats, colombian sharks, pictus and a bunch of other bottom feeders and none of them comes close to the loaches. Since I don't have snails anymore (algae never came back) I will probably look into getting them again.

EDIT: My bad lol I just realized u don't like loaches. I'd go with Syno cats then. I had a school of 12 for about a month and they never seemed as active as I was told they were, but they definitely kept the sand clean.
 
no one has said Striped Raphael yet. they get large (8 in.), armored, and wont back down from a conflict. also fits with the region. my raphael keeps my sand pretty clean. he hides alot but when i get up in the morning, my sand is clean.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom