CLean up crew in my RBP tank

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R

ryno1974

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Aug 3, 2009
24
0
31
Kitchener, ON
I currently have a 50 gallon with 4 adult RBP's and 5 or 6 juvie convicts. The tank is too small, I know but until I get my 110 ready to go they need to stay there. The problem I am having is even with weekly 25% water changes the tank is getting really dirty. The water change and glass cleaning is no big deal, I expect it from that kind of bio load in the tank, but the driftwood and rocks are getting brown/black algae growing on them and I dont know what to do about keeping them clean. All my other tanks have a few BN plecos and most have an otto or two and I never have this problem. In my 65 gallon planted cyprinid tank I have had the same rocks for three years and they have never needed to be scrubbed.

So question is, can I add a pleco or two, or will the P's eat them?

BTW, I have 2 AC 70's filtering the tank. and I feed them ether shell on shimp or cut up octopus every 2-3 days. Right now it is Octo. I tried chopped up beef heart, but it made a huge mess, stunk, and they didnt like it.


Thanks.
 
It will be a hit and miss thing. I have yo yo loaches and convicts in my piranha tank but they ate the pleco I tried out on them in under 24 hours. I should of waited until closer to dark possibly but I didn't wait with the loaches...
 
how many times a week do you do water changes? try 30% to 40% with more water changes see if that helps ...
 
it's a hit or miss when it comes to tank mate and piranha, but if you want something that helps with algae I would suggest either otos or rubber lip pleco, I found them to better job at eating algae then other plecos I've tried (typically common pleco)
keep in mind that they will also add stress to your bio filter so make sure you over filter as other suggested.
 
If you feed them right you won't need a cleanup crew, as no food should be sitting on the bottom. Also you should be feeding other foods besides just two things. N one last thing. If the beefheart made a mess n stunk that's because you didn't feed it right n left food on bottom to rot.not fair to blame a perfectly good food because you don't know how to feed your fish.
 
BRUNER247;4405521; said:
If you feed them right you won't need a cleanup crew, as no food should be sitting on the bottom. Also you should be feeding other foods besides just two things. N one last thing. If the beefheart made a mess n stunk that's because you didn't feed it right n left food on bottom to rot.not fair to blame a perfectly good food because you don't know how to feed your fish.
Click to expand...

I didnt blame a perfectly good food, I was just stating fact about what happened. How do you propose I "feed it right"? What do you propose I feed them if two is not enough?

And if you read my original post you would see my problem is not food rotting on the bottom, it is algae build up on rocks and driftwood.
 
I did read the post you stated I tried feeding chopped up beefheart n it made a mess. I feed beefheart n honestly I don't know how they could be making a mess as adults swallow chunks right down. The only way your fish are making a mess from it is, your buying frozen beefheart which if I recall right your fish are grown n to big for frozen beefheart cubes.or your cutting fresh beefheart up way to small. Or your leaving it on the bottom. There's lots of thinks you could be feeding also. Fresh beefheart cut to bite size cubes, krill, shrimp, fish fillets, nightcrawlers, crawdads,pellets, prawns,live fish,some feed chicken, pinkies, crickets,ect. As for algy I rotate a pleco between my piranha tanks.don't put any fish that you don't wanna lose in a piranha tank. Might work for a day, maybe a week, sooner or later it'll get ate.
 
It is fresh beef heart exctructed to one inch plugs (I work in a meat plant), frozen for storage and thawed for feeding.

I might give it a try again, if I can get them to take it I have an unlimited free supply :)
 
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