Recommendations for a good bottom feeder...

[Jack1]

Recommendations for a good bottom feeder to also help with removal of dead feeder fish (rosey reds, guppies, etc.)?

[CrazieEddie]

What size aquarium do you have? What kind of fish stock? How many? Just asking these questions to see if you room for additional fish....Remember, the rule of thumb for keeping fish is 1" per gallon. That's a full size adult, so let's you have a fish that's still small (3"), but full grown would b 10" and you have a 10 gallon tank. Even though it's at 3" right now, that is probably the only thing you can keep in your tank.

OK, now for the type of fish...I find some algae eaters, like plecos, like to eat left over dead fish. Unfortunately, they (plecos) can get rather big. And they don't eat them all the time. If they do, they just leave the skeletal remains.

The only thing tho is you should NEVER leave dead fish in the tank because you will get ammonia spikes, which is bad for the fish. Make sure you always clean up the remains as soon as possible.

[vjvl51]

Hi Jack

It would hlep to know the size of tank that you have. The one that I like grows 8.5 inches long and minimum recommended tank size is a 39 inch. It is a raphel catfish (I'm partial to the striped ones), otherwise known as platydoras costatus. He is peaceful but will eat anything that it can get into it's mouth. He will clean up dead as well as live feeder guppies.

Never catch it with a net (use a glass) - it's plates will get tangled in the net and you will have to cut the net to get him loose. They are known for making a grunting sound when out of water.

It prefers to hide all day, but we would usually see him come out to feed about 7 or 8 in the evening.

Vickie

[Jack1]

Thanks for the replies!

My tank is a 75 gal w/ 15 gal wet-dry/sump. It is slightly brackish (about 1/2 teaspoon of salt for every gallon of water). The tank is somewhat planted (has two types of hornwort, moneywort, anacharis, banana plant and a sword). Lighting consists of two strips, one with two 55w power compacts and one with a 40w flourescent tube. Substrate is mostly aragonite coral sand (not sugarfine) with some aragonite sand (sugar fine), some "natural" gravel, some crushed coral, and some various sized pebbles. Substrate depth ranges from around 2.5"-6". Approx. 50 lbs of rock (mostly coral baserock) has been used to build wall/mound with several caves. There are also a couple of pieces of driftwood in the tank. This is obviously a fairly hardwater tank. Current is fairly strong for a FW tank, with a Mag 7 pump, pumping water through a SeaSwirl return (the SeaSwirl slowly rotates about 90 degrees); and a Maxijet 900 powerhead on a wavemaker (the wavemaker causes the powerhead to run for short period of time, then shut down for a short period of time).

Currently, there are about 35 small guppies in the tank (I cycled with feeder guppies). Along with the guppies, I plan to keep 3 or 4 mollies and a few otocinclus or whiptail catfish. I also plan to keep 3 or 4 Belonesox belizanus (pike topminnow). Hopefully, breeding guppies and mollies will provide a great deal of the food for the Belonesox. However, these will likely need to be supplemented with feeders such as rosey reds and possibly more guppies. The Belonesox can grow up to 6" - 8". However, they are a slender fish. Nothing like a 6" - 8" oscar. The wet-dry is rated for a 150 gallon tank so with the additional water volume, the wet-dry and the plants, I'm probably a little less worried about bioload than I am with overcrowding.

A lady @ the LFS recommended Syndontis catfish, but the ones she showed me grew fairly large (at least they looked pretty big to me, probably 4"-5" long but fairly bulky). I know I could get a couple of crawfish, but they will also catch a few fish. Whatever I get, I don't want something that is going to bother the plants, whether it's by eating them or just clumsily pulling them up or rearranging the substrate to where the plants have to be replanted. I really don't want a pleco because of the destruction to the plants.

Any thoughts?

[Nooboon]

How about corydoras cats. They have to be one of the best scavengers there are as the seem to be searching the gravel continuosly. Nice and small and will tolerate the salt well. There are some interesting variations out there.

Some other options- Banjo cat (Bunocephalus coracoideus). A true scavenger, will eat anything it can get in its mouth even if it is not digestable. Hardly ever seen moving during the day. Uses jet propulsion through the gills to swim. Probably not much good as the sole cleaner.

-Chain loach (Botia Sidthimunki). Small schooling loach that is active during the day. Not sure of salt hardiness though.

Kuhli loach (Acanthophthalmus semicinctus). Worm like fish that feel safer kept in groups. Not often seen during the day but will give the tank a great cleaning after lights out.

Bottom dwelling fish are my favourites. My tanks always look empty but I have to keep upgrading to give me more bottom space for all those fish you can't see.

[Jack1]

I don't know of any corys that would be large enough to eat dead feeders, I would love to know if there were some. I might eventually add two or three corys for the reasons you mentioned.

I must admit that I have never kept loaches and I'm not that familiar with them. They do look cool and I know they are scavengers, but would they be able to eat dead feeders? This tank's salt content is fairly low, so unless they were very sensitive, I would think they would do fine. Of course I would make sure they could tolerate before adding.

[Nooboon]

Hmmm. The problem you have seems to be that you need something that will clean up the dead feeders but not harm any living fish.

For instance the pictus catfish would be a great addition in respect that it would scavange any meaty leftovers but may also take the odd living guppy for dinner.

What sort of size are you looking for? Clown loaches would do a good clean-up job but may eventually grow to 8 inches.

[Jack1]

I kind of thought about a pictus or two. However, lady @ LFS didn't think they would do that good of a job. I've had pictus cats before, but never with this specific task in mind. Also, you are likely correct in that they might feed on the feeders.

I really want something smaller than 8", of course I could always trade to LFS if the loaches got too big. Clown loaches look cool and I know they are scavengers, but would they readily eat dead feeders? Also, are you familiar with their tolerance to salt? I really like the "eel shaped" loaches, but again not sure if they would eat the feeders and not sure of their tolerance to salt.

[Nooboon]

No I'm not sure of the clowns salt tolerance. In fact I think I read somewhere that they had a low tolerance but not entirely sure. I have used salt in my tank with them and they survived but that was pretty low conc.

I would suggest a combination of bottom feeders if you have room. I suggested the corys earlier and I know they can tackle some reasonably big food if in a big group but as you say, dead feeders might be just a bit to much. However as suplimentary cleaners they would be great.

As the lady at your LFS said, synodontis will tackle some chunky stuff. I had some unknown synodontis that would clean up big hunks of frozen beef-heart mixture in one gulp. They are big bodied though as you say, and most grow quite large. My favourites would be - S. nigriventris (upside-down cat), S. multipunctatus (cuckoo cat), S. angelicus (angel cat), S. flavitaeniatus.

[oscarbartoni]

You might try some of the larger freshwater shrimp or dwarf crawfish if you don't have fish that will eat them but with you having dead feeders I will assume that you have large preditory fish that will eat shrimp or small crawfish. You do not mention the type of fedre fish, guppies, goldfish or "tuffies". The samller the fish the easier it will be to find a scavanger that will eat any that you do not remove. :ID

[vjvl51]

Jack, I normally have a peacock eel or a tire track eel in my tanks. I find they help with the trumpet snails but I have never seen them near any dead fish (feeder or otherwise).

Vickie

[CrazieEddie]

Jack1:

I really like the "eel shaped" loaches, but again not sure if they would eat the feeders and not sure of their tolerance to salt.

The eel shaped loaches are the kuhli loaches and they only get to about 3 inches. Depending on how big your feeders, I don't think they would even fit in their mouths. Besides, I don't think dead fish are in the kuhli loaches diet.

I use salt in my tank with my clown loaches, but also at a low concentration.

[Jack1]

Ecubilla, how much salt do you use?

[CrazieEddie]

I have a 55 gallon tank, but I put the dosage for a 45 gallon tank. I also put the salt in a plastic cup, which I cut slits thru so water can flow thru, not for the salt to come out. I then put some string on the cup and just hang it inside the tank, below the water line. This way the salt is dissolving properly into the water. I move the cup around at different areas in the tank so it spreads somewhat evenly.

All the fish seem happy with this method, including my loaches.

[Jack1]

Ecubilla, your method of addition sounds ok. Most recommend mixing the salt in water first, then pouring the saltwater into the tank. I kept reeftanks for many years, and with saltwater tanks, it is best to mix and aerate before adding. I can't imagine a good reason to go to that extreme with FW. I will say that you need to at least have some idea how much salt you are adding. Remember, salt does not evaporate. Therefore unless you have removed water from the system (by siphoning or whatever), the salt stays. You only need to add additional salt if you are performing a water change and only enough salt so that it replenishes the quantity of water you're adding back to the tank.

I have a refractometer (measures salinity in ppt) but I haven't used yet on this tank. I'm trying to find that salinity level where the fish benefit, but the plants aren't harmed. Currently, I have about 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water. I realize this is a very vague measurement since different brands of salt would yield different salinity levels, even if you added the exact same amount.
However, it is a starting point.