Sunny004
Aquarium Advice Regular
Here is the situation we have a 55 gallon "barb tank" with about 20 barbs and a few silver tipped tetras in addition to 6 Cory's and 2 upside down catfish. Over the last 4-5 months we have had no water issues, we do water tests weekly, some heater issues that have been resolved (way too cold in the basement for one heater - we now have 2 heaters and are able to keep water temps safe and consistent) but it seems we can not keep "cleaner" fish in there. We had 3 bristle nose Plecostamus and we lost them all, no visible signs of anything, and now we lost an albino marble algae eater last night and the other one looks weak and sluggish. All other fish look great and are behaving normally.
My thoughts after staring at the tank for 72 hours is that they "cleaner fish" don't get nutrients from food dropped in the tank due to the aggressive barb action. We have worm sticks, flake food, and algae wafers that we feed, but those little barbs will eat the wafers too!
Could that be why we keep losing our "cleaners"? Nutritional starvation? Thoughts?
My thoughts after staring at the tank for 72 hours is that they "cleaner fish" don't get nutrients from food dropped in the tank due to the aggressive barb action. We have worm sticks, flake food, and algae wafers that we feed, but those little barbs will eat the wafers too!
Could that be why we keep losing our "cleaners"? Nutritional starvation? Thoughts?
