Bichir safe pleco or other "algea eater"?

[Spiritofthesoul]

A dead pleco is always bichir safe. Seriously why risk the health of your bichir if you care so much about that?

 

[ToyotaNation]

Bristlenose are true herbivores, not omnivores. But like someone already mentioned, bigger polys sometimes decide to eat them. I've been using olive nerite snails, so far so good, even though they're only a little bigger than dime sized.

I was startin to think about these well just snails in general. will any snails do?

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

I have success keeping apple snails with bichirs

Check out my DP

 

[ToyotaNation]

A dead pleco is always bichir safe. Seriously why risk the health of your bichir if you care so much about that?

I noticed in your picture you have a snail on the back of your poly. any problems with that?

 

[King-eL]

You want the best algae eating fish that a bichir won't eat and won't suck on the bichir's slime. Get a colony of Starlight bristlenose pleco (Ancistrus sp. (L255)) I have 6 before in my tank and they are very safe. Dowside, they breed too much. They grow to 8" and with bulky body. Not even a 20" bichir will dare to swallow it.

 

[spwd]

Good to know bud.

 

[Cholly]

You want the best algae eating fish that a bichir won't eat and won't suck on the bichir's slime. Get a colony of Starlight bristlenose pleco (Ancistrus sp. (L255)) I have 6 before in my tank and they are very safe. Dowside, they breed too much. They grow to 8" and with bulky body. Not even a 20" bichir will dare to swallow it.

Those are really cool looking. Can't breed if they're the same sex. Might have to try one if one of my LFS's are willing.

 

[JamesF]

The starlight might be a bit tricky, but many others will also grow to a decent size. Even common ones can get 5" and very bulky.

 

[joshbough23]

I have a 10 inch sailfin pleco with mine. They get along perfectly. I tried some otos for getting into the tight spots... but my endli ate them. Ghost shrimp seem to do the trick as far as the algae on my plants goes.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

I noticed in your picture you have a snail on the back of your poly. any problems with that?

Nope, they just tag along, do not munch on slimecoat. They are pretty good clean-up crew. Bichirs are messy eaters, they munch on the sinking pellets and everything flys around. The snails just picked them up