Clean up crew for rtc?

[justarn]

what about something really really small and in the hundreds, very small shrimps or tiny fish??? i bet he wouldnt chase a fish under 1cm, would be a cool project!-)

you need to start a smallest tropical fish thread or have a browse with the search button.

 

[koltsixx]

Large plecos or motoro stingrays


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Neither are good clean up crew in my opinion as both need a lot more then RedTail scraps and would create their own mess. Usually Stingrays are the center of the set up as any set up not built around them usually ends up in their demise. Large Pleco's as well often need special considerations that make them less then ideal secondary thought clean up crews.

As others have said most clean up crews would be eaten. RedTails are one of the few fish that I would consider a bare bottom for, so any unwanted matter would be more likely to be sucked up by the filter, especially if you've got low flow powerheads along the bottom of the tank keeping the matter suspended in the water column. As Justarn suggested very small prey maybe ignored and is another interesting possible solution.

 

[castro1212]

That could work in enormous numbers


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[Rotaryp04s]

Good size barbs and silver $$

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I've never had this problem and I feed frozen-thawed most of all. I'd switch to other brands, or other frozen foods, or prewash the prawns well for your RTC, as simple as that. I hope you are aware of the thiaminase issues with crustacean-rich diets.

I do recall a thread or two where hobbyists stated that their large predators ignored small prey. IDK how spread this phenomenon is. Judging from the scarcity of such reports, cases like these appear exceptional, although it may simply mean that few people even think of that.

I also recall some keepers report that a fraction of their live feeders does not get eaten and hangs around the tank and even grows up.

Having said that, I think the risk is way too high your clean-up crew, fish or ghost shrimp or snails etc., will be eaten up.

 

[harleyboy]

Try target feeding so shrimp aren't just floating around the tank with a large amount of water u shouldn't even notice this I'm a little confused but I will add that I keep white mountain clouds with my red bellies as the p's get larger there to lazy to chase a one inch fish if neons weren't to costly to buy id throw a 100 in


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[Oddball]

You could add Gammarus shrimp (scuds) to the tank. They'll eat whatever hasn't already been metabolized and they'll be off the RTCs radar as menu items.

 

[FuriousFish]

At the national aquarium in baltimore the 4+ foot 30 year old RTC is in with a school of a couple hundread neon tetras... This is a 10,000 gallon+ tank though.


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