Need a lone bottom feeder

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

matratzac1

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
6
Location
Boone, NC
I have an Aqua-tech 5 gallon tank which I just recently got and I have to say that I am really impressed with it. Right now I have a betta, and one white cloud. I want to get one more fish. I want a bottom feeder. However, I have read that if you are going to have cory catfish, you need multiple ones. Same with loaches. I want to get 1 more fish, a bottom feeder. I also may get 1 more white cloud, so the other one is not lonely. However, some of you may say my tank is too small but I think it can handle 1 more small fish (preferably a bottom feeder). Please, is there any bottom feeder which would prefer to live alone, other than a pleco? The last time I need is some like 12 inch fish in my tank. So, no pleco. Thanks!
 
so the final aquarium woudl include the following:
1 male beta
1 white cloud
2 oto cats

sound good? any other suggestions?
 
You're a bit limited by the 5 gal tank. I would have suggested an ancistrus, but even the dwarf ones get to be about 4 inches long.

How about a few FW shrimp, or a mystery snail? They both eat uneaten food and have minimal impact on the bioload.
 
i have thougth about a snail.. i did have 2 ghost shrimp but my betta ate them. yum. i am kind of reluctant to get a snail bc i have heard bad stories about them reproducing everywhere and would much rather have a bottom feeder anyway.
 
I thought only nusance snails reproduced like crazy

you could get one or two giant mystery snails or golden snails
 
I would hold out on putting more fish in a five gallon. Even one more. If it were me I would upgrade to a ten gallon tank, and then add a couple corys.
 
if someone has a snail problem ... I'll gladly take them ... I have 3 yo-yos, and 5 small botia rostrata & angelicus ... I tried to get some snails ... like when I got my plants, I purposely asked for the plants with the snails on them ... but alas ... they were gone almost immediately after I added them.

As for 1 bottom feeder ... I just got this really cool loach ... he was listed as a devilfish sucker loach at the store, but he's really a chinese butterfly loach ... he mostly scoots along my glass and the bottom. He appears to be in search of algae ... as I can see his mouth moving non-stop while he's on the glass. Plus, he's really small. Mines like an inch.
 
i vote for a big snail. i think they will be happier than fish in such a small tank.

if you need a fish-type, i would go for one CAE (accepting the other poster's knowledge that CAE don't get lonely...i have no idea myself...) or two otos, rather than 2 corycats. Otos are much smaller than corycats, and in my experience corycats are very active and really can get depressed if there are fewer than three or 4 and minimal space.
 
Back
Top Bottom