Like someone said above, carp aren't native but do a great job as a clean-up crew. I have two and they do an awesome job cleaning up any left overs and stirring up waste to be sucked up by the filter. Plus they have great personalities.
Native bottom feeder/clean up crew/algae eater
- Thread starter bjbass
- Start date
I agreed, maybe you should check out the bait shops to see if they have some 12" suckers as most suckers in bait shops are farm-raised, they should adapt to the prepared foods. But if you can't find any good sized suckers, try other non-native fishes such as common pleco, brown holpo, "black" koi or large single-tailed goldfish (maybe a bronze colored). It would be a little tricky to find any good sized ones to avoid become eaten by a bullhead.
Why add something so messy like a carp or goldfish? That is just one more large messy fish to feed that will just add even more crap to the bottom of your tank. Sounds counter-productive to me. These fish would be hardly 'clean up crews' b/c they'll produce more crap than any other fish in that tank. If you want the bottom to get stirred up, add more current at the bottom of the tank. Point your outflows from your filters downward or add a small powerhead to blow all the junk of the bottom to your filter/sump in takes (even if this does not work, the powerheads will push all of the junk to a stagnant area of your tank).. If you are doing weekly water changes, then you can just suck up the gunk that is piled up on one corner from the powerhead.
I always figured that having a sucker fish eating all the leftover food and bits of edibles on the ground and crapping is way better then leaving the particles to break down. I dont give my sucker any type of food and he manages to do just fine picking up leftovers. The problem i had with my tank was when i feed my fish dried foods they will break it down and spit out pieces of dried shrimp shells, so i caught a few river shiners and they swim around eating bits of leftover food aswell. There is many options instead of getting non native fish which imo dont look good in native tanks.
I've watched by sucker eat many times and he will take in mouth fulls of sand, eat the bits that are edible and spit out the rest of the sand. He also goes out of his way to go into the cracks between rocks that might have food, i've actually had to manually remove him from inbetween rocks.
I've watched by sucker eat many times and he will take in mouth fulls of sand, eat the bits that are edible and spit out the rest of the sand. He also goes out of his way to go into the cracks between rocks that might have food, i've actually had to manually remove him from inbetween rocks.
LOL...isn't that the truth. He is a beast. When I had a golden shiner in there for awhile he tried to eat him many times, but eventually he gave up. I think if another fish could last a few days it would be fine as he gets used to him.
Maybe I just need to rearrange my returns. I have the dual overflows and the returns have two adjustable nozzles. I like the idea of a powerhead blowing things around on the bottom too. Hmm... lots of options!
