Green Terror cleanup crew

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TaxBaby16

Black Skirt Tetra
MFK Member
Apr 28, 2020
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Is it just me or are these fish are pretty messy? Between the uneaten food and the waste it gets gross in there pretty fast.
I decided to throw in a handful of ramshorn snails to help control all the debris they leave behind, but this morning I can only find 2 of them and one of them was quite large (youd think id be able to see it) Last night i noticed the male was kindof picking at them but I didnt think much of it
Is it possible they ate my newly added snails??? What do you put in to help keep waste under control other than chemicals? I originally wanted an apple snail but I cant find any with all these store shut downs
 
Some snails multiply and become quite a nuisance; not an expert on snail species, so I don't know about Ramshorn snails, but it's possible your GT is doing you a favor, but others who know more about them would have to weigh in. I didn't know GTs ate snails, but I didn't have snails with them, either.

I've kept a number of GTs, didn't notice them being especially polluting for a cichlid of their size and didn't do anything beyond my ordinary to maintain them. It may make a difference what or how much you're feeding? I fed mine moderately, nothing special trying to get them to grow fast. I personally wouldn't resort to chemicals for tank maintenance. When I've had heavy waste producers, like royal plecos, or heavily stocked Malawi tanks, I made up for it with water changes and regular gravel vacuuming. These days I rely on a balanced tank, light to moderate stocking and feeding and solid waste breaks down quickly in these tanks. In some tanks I have small to medium-- and less waste producing plecos. That said, some of my tanks need more water change and filter maintenance than others.

...People will have different opinions on 'cleaner' fish. I don't personally think in terms of a 'cleanup crew' at all, but I do like fancy plecos-- some make more of a mess than they clean, others are not bad at all, unless maybe you feed them so called pleco or veggie foods that are mostly junk. These says I'm all for making it easy on myself so I don't keep the messier plecos. But I often have fish that will pick at the bottom or sift sand, including geos and my Cyphotilapia. (I always kept GTs with other fish)
 
Most Andinoacara will eat snails.
I find the best way to get rid of waste is a short 5 minute daily vacuuming of the substrate, and replacing the water vacuumed out with fresh new water. Beside getting rid of unsightly waste, it would improve water quality by leaps and bounds..
 
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I normally toss a few convicts in my tanks. They do a pretty good job snagging up the food that makes it to the bottom. I just take extra precaution not tossing a pair of convicts in a tank. It's comical to see bigger fish not crossing a half way point on a 6ft tank when 2 little convicts pair up, but at the same time I didn't set them up for the convicts...lol.
 
duanes said:
Most Andinoacara will eat snails.
I find the best way to get rid of waste is a short 5 minute daily vacuuming of the substrate, and replacing the water vacuumed out with fresh new water. Beside getting rid of unsightly waste, it would improve water quality by leaps and bounds..
Click to expand...
the problem with that is I cant stop at 5 min, LOL. it becomes a 50% water change automatically. It drives me nuts to see all that crap floating around
 
If you want snails for cleaning the substrate, Malaysian trumpet snails are hard to beat. They are mostly buried in the substrate so you don't really notice them.
I've kept them with all manor of fish and cichlids. I've never known them to get eaten. I believe their shell is to hard.
The only species I've seen tackle Malaysian trumpet snails are large leporinus, who suck them out of the shell.
I agree with neutrino that green terrors are not particularly messy fish. I would also suggest feeding less and cleaning your tank more often or more effectively.
I had six adult green terrors in my tank at one time. I never found them particularly messy.
 
becareful with rams horn, they will multiply really fast and before you know it you'll have a ton of them... ask me how I know lol. Completely overwhelmed a 20g I had set up, literally was pulling 30 to 40 snails at a time by hand every few weeks, could have have been a breeder.....
 
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