bottom scavanger suggestion

[Cliffz]

Folks,
I gave away all my fish to try shrimp. Well, I only have 2 small shrimp left and I am looking to introduce a bottom dwelling scavanger to clean up the bottom of tank. Can anyone suggest a bottom feeder that wont rip up my Dwarf Clover, Baby Tears etc..?
When I had a Botia and Albino cats they stirred up the bottom so much nothing fragile stayed rooted.
Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[GlitcH]

Hey Cliff...........sorry to hear about your bad luck with the cherries.

Bottom dwellers that I have in my 92G and get along well with the cherries are pygmy cories and kuhli loaches.

And each of them does very little to disturb even the smallest of plants.

 

[Cliffz]

Pygmy Cories? Hmmm sound like a hard to find cat. I'll look into it! Thanks

 

[GlitcH]

Ya they aren't easy to find but if ya come across some.......a large school of em look cool foraging around the bottom of yourtank.

This is much larger than you want obviously but keep an eye on aquabid....they have some now and then.
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwcatfishc&1186596758

And Kuhli loaches are my favorite fish.....I got a school of 12 from this guy and I can't say enough about him and the fish.........great healthy fish.

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwcatfishl&1185570087

 

[Purrbox]

Pygmy Cories? Hmmm sound like a hard to find cat. I'll look into it! Thanks

A lot of times your LFS can special order these for you (may take a few months), although I've run across some LFS that carry them as a standard item. Corydoras pygmaeus, Corydoras hastatus, and Corydoras habrosus all stay nice and small and have slightly different markings.

 

[Jchillin]

My bristlenoses are very kind to their plants...never uprooting or stirring up the substrate to disturb them. They kinda like taking leftover food and/or bits of algae off them.

 

[Zezmo]

You could also go with dwarf loaches (Botia sidthmunki - dwarf chain loach). They do not dig as much as other loaches, and have some very playful behaviors in large groups.
http://www.wgwguild.com/images/albums/Fish/29-chainloach_2.jpg

or maybe some Nerite snails or even a limpet.
http://www.wgwguild.com/images/albums/Fish/29-nerite_limpet-1.jpg
http://www.wgwguild.com/images/albums/Fish/29-nerite_limpet-2.jpg
http://www.wgwguild.com/images/albums/Fish/29-nerite_limpet-3.jpg

I recently bought a false zebra pleco (possibly L129). He has proven to be an exceptional algae eater and all around scavenger, and does not seem to dig up much of anything. Though his rasping does wear on the Anubias leaves, this is typical of several plecos. They get to about eh same size as a bristlenose pleco (3-4")

Like Jc, I am a fan of the b-nose plecos as well. I have two breeding pairs (in different tanks). In one tank they live in an artificial cave I bought for them. In the other tank they dug thier own cave under a large piece of driftwood. The nice thing there is, I have hundreds of baby plecos all over the tank.... all those hungry little babies keep the glass very clean. Other than digging the cave, they do not root up any plants.

 

[Cliffz]

Foplks,
thanks for all your replys!

I'll keep an eye out for a Bristle nose Pleco and a Pygmy cory. I have a few (15) snails but dont know what kind. they have been sliming all over keeping things clean.

 

[7Enigma]

Probably just commons, or ramshorns. Nerites are all but impossible to find and shipping them is expensive from most places I've checked out.

 

[travis simonson]

If you're not dead set of fish, Malaysian trumpet snails (MTS) are my bottom cleaner of choice. You don't see much of them during the day because they bury themselves under the substrate, but at night they come out in force and scavenge just about any debris they can find on the substrate and elsewhere. They're not much to look at, but they sure do the job