Bottom Feeder for Chiclid Tank

[bbaker]

All, I'm looking for a bottom feeder that my chiclids wont eat. I have 4 various African chiclids in a 46 Gal Bow front. Each are about 2 1/2" long at this point.

I had a placostumus as my bottom feeder since I started the tank and all lived somewhat peacfully for many months.

As recently as a week ago, my chiclids decided they wanted "Platty" burgers and ate him.

I've been told bottom feeders with Chiclids dont last long at all.

Can someone reccomend a bottom feeder that won't be bullied around?

Thanks,

 

[lonestar]

I'm surprised that they ate a plecostomus. I've heard that even crayfish don't eat plecos because their skin is "armored" - maybe he stumbled onto some eggs or bothered a brooding female? Cichlids are territorial, and I would imagine moreso when breeding.

He also may have died for some other reason and they just lunched on him a little.

What kind of cichlids and pleco? What is your pH, and temperature, and do you have enough caves for everybody to hide in to keep stress down?

 

[kermit]

Had an african that ate a his pleco buddy.. after months of them getting along fine.

 

[Menagerie]

Hmmmm, in my 80 gal tank, the cichlids have lived with a pleco for years. The biggest male cichlid pics fihgts with it, but the pleco is able to defend itself. It would definately help to know which cichlids you have, as there are few bottom feeders that can play nice with cichlids.

 

[hopalong_70]

I found a solution for this problem in my African tank. The cichlids would kill my pleco in about 3 months. This happened a few times. I even put a big 8" pleco in there, but he didn't last either. The fix was to put 2 new plecos in at once. Aparently this confuses the ciclids because they dont know which one to attack. This has worked for me now for 8 months.

 

[Menagerie]

The cichlids would kill my pleco in about 3 months.

What cichlids are you keeping?

The fix was to put 2 new plecos in at once. Aparently this confuses the ciclids because they dont know which one to attack.

It is also true when you want to add more cichlids to an established tank. The more newbies, the less agression per fish, since the established fish can't gang up on only one fish.

 

[hopalong_70]

I keep a variety of Africans, but the more agressive ones that were bothering the pleco's are: Demasoni,Tropheus, and Bumblebee cichlid.

 

[Menagerie]

I keep mainly Pseudotropheus species.