Clean up crew for Centrals..

[Aquanero]

SAE's will be food. Raphael catfish will do the job not obtrusive, effeciant, not to metion tuff as nails.

 

[Skurj]

I have had BN's with African's and now I have a pair in a 46g corner with a pair of Thoricthys ellioti and when the Africans were in the tank you'd never see the BN's. Now with the Thors. they are much happier and braver they can be seen busily doing their thing in the day. I'd be just concerned about how small they are. To get a small breeding group going though would be awesome +)

 

[convict360]

I never had any problems using striped/spotted raphaels with mid-sized cichlids, can't speak for the larger ones though!

 

[arodini]

my 12" dovii hasn't done anything more than just "looking up-close" at my 5" striped raphael. however one single raphael isn't enough at cleaning up the small pieces of food, so plan to get 1-2 more if i can find them big enough.

 

[arodini]

i like bala sharks as cleaning crew too, but they don't work with my dovii because of its hunting technique.

 

[cichlidfish]

I have always thought if you need a clean up crew you are either overfeeding or looking for an excuse to add more fish. A clean up crew defeats the whole purpose, because what ever that fish eats it just poops back out. Plus then you find yourself just feeding another fish. That is just my opinion on the subject.

 

[tiger15]

You don't have to overfeed and still need clean up crew. Big fish are messy eater and will create food remnants that need clean up crew to pick up.

 

[arodini]

I have always thought if you need a clean up crew you are either overfeeding or looking for an excuse to add more fish. A clean up crew defeats the whole purpose, because what ever that fish eats it just poops back out. Plus then you find yourself just feeding another fish. That is just my opinion on the subject.

It's not from overfeeding, but messy feeding. At least that's my case. Don't you see pellet crumbs in your tank?

 

[cichlidfish]

It's not from overfeeding, but messy feeding. At least that's my case. Don't you see pellet crumbs in your tank?

That's why we have filters and water changes. A clean up crew can't survive on scraps alone. They still create waste. Who cleans that up?

 

[administrator]

Baby convicts work great in my tank. They are very athletic when they are young so they don't get picked off too easily and they constantly comb through all of the gravel. Once they start getting large and try to breed they usually get taken out by one of the various predators in the tank.