Vacuuming a 2.5g creché tank effectively?

[Shetland James]

I have a 2.5g tank which I keep my baby guppies and balloon mollies in, ranging from just getting their colours to weeks old. There's probably about 30-40 in there.

Small tanks do seem to gather problems quite quickly as I've noticed that algae grows at a fast rate, even though I have a pleco-thing. I say thing because it's quite an odd little fella. As my mum said it kinda "looks like a slug-catfish".

Anyway. The bottom of the tank is getting a little bit messy for my liking now and I'm just concerned about the best way to clean it. I think that if I use a regular vacuum it will suck up the little babies and I don't want to unsettle them. I used to use a wee fish net and scoop some of the dirty up but lots slips through. Would I be better to use a small pipe to syphon the tank or should I put a folded bit of kitchen roll into the net and swoop it along the bottom, hoping to catch everything?

 

[neilanh]

They make nano-sized vacuums, most LFSs carry them. That's what I used on my 2.5

 

[Shetland James]

Neat.

there isn't much substrate in it. I had some for a while but after realising the difficulty of cleaning it I took as much as I could feasibly out with a net.

 

[Vircomore]

You should try and get a picture of your "pleco-thing". Because there are catfish that look somewhat similar to plecos - (your description makes me think of a CAE) - that don't actually do that much algae-eating and will instead get aggressive when they get bigger.

 

[Shetland James]

No he's definitely no algae eater.

I'll have a picture up later. I remember the LFS guy called it a Butterfly plec; maybe I misheard but he is absolutely not that.

He is essentially about one inch long, has dark brown skin with tiny yellow spots on him. He has very little in the way of finage. He tapers from a thick head to a thin pointy tail - like a teardrop shape. LFS man said he wouldn't grow very big and I explained the tank I was putting him into and what purpose I wanted him to serve.

I don't believe that he would BS me because I have a good working relationship with him, so I dunno. best description I can give without a picture for now.

 

[Shetland James]

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/2815/photojkr.jpg

Taken from an iPod Touch so not great quality but you get the idea. The mirror reflection shows his underbelly.