Lower Jaw Bichir and BN Plecos?

Rayfishowner

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
May 2, 2017
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Hey all,

I have a planted aquarium with a 14-15 in lapradei bichir, 5 in Indonesian Tiger Datnoid, 6 Adult Angelfish. This stocking is not set in stone and will likely decrease as the bichir and datnoid grows. I’ve already seen Datnoid aggression on some of the angelfish as they get close to his territory so will most likely move them to a separate community tank or rehome them. But that’s besides the point!

My main question: Looking for good algae and clean up fish for my tank. Bichir leaves a decent mess of massivores and it tends to get hidden behind the rocks and gravel and I’m thinking of getting some kind of catfish or pleco to help out. There is also a lot of green spot algae and diatom on the glass so looking for something to help with that as well. Currently the tank has 20+ mystery snails (started with over 100 with breeding) and have slowly sold most of them off to local hobbies since they get to the food faster than the bichir and pile over it and she can’t access the food ?. Now it’s much better with less, but the snails still do nothing to help with the algae on the glass. Talk about being useless!

What do you guys recommend? I don’t want something that will outcompete the bichir for food and mainly help clean up some of the debris she makes. Additionally, if anything can help with the algae it would be appreciated as well. Obviously the best answer is to manually clean it and reduce feeding/ lighting which I am doing, but any species of catfish/plecos especially good at algae cleaning?

Im thinking of getting something like a four line pictus and/or BN pleco and/or Raphael catfish?

I’d probably grow the catfish out in a separate tank until it’s large enough for the bichir and Datnoid.

Let me know what you guys think and here are some pics I’ve taken of the fish (circa this year)! Sorry if you’ve seen these pics in past threads I made, didn’t take many pics ?

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Toiletcar

Goliath Tigerfish
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Jun 5, 2008
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How about limit feeding and/or scooping it out yourself? Adding a fish to clean tanks for you is only adding to your problem. The pleco can’t just survive on tank algae and scraps. They need algae wafers, veggies and wood in their diet. Plus they add more waste by pooping. All any pleco will do is create more waste.
 
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Rayfishowner

Peacock Bass
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May 2, 2017
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How about limit feeding and/or scooping it out yourself? Adding a fish to clean tanks for you is only adding to your problem. The pleco can’t just survive on tank algae and scraps. They need algae wafers, veggies and wood in their diet. Plus they add more waste by pooping. All any pleco will do is create more waste.
Thanks for this reply. I was mainly looking for something to act as a scavenger to “clean up” uneaten food, but I understand that they may provide more waste than help. Guess I have to just do more maintenance ??.
 

kno4te

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Thanks for this reply. I was mainly looking for something to act as a scavenger to “clean up” uneaten food, but I understand that they may provide more waste than help. Guess I have to just do more maintenance ??.
Four line pim could work as a clean up crew.
 
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Rayfishowner

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
May 2, 2017
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Four line pim could work as a clean up crew.
Cool! I’m looking into syndontis species and pimelodus species. I’m thinking plecos may make too much of a mess and also the BN get too small. Thanks again!
 
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