bottom feeder suggestions

[skiweeangel]

My son's 55g is ready for a bottom feeder. We have 7 gold zebra danios and I was wondering if they could be a tasty treat for a white clawed fiddler crab. They are very fast, so my guess is they would be ok, but could I have a bottom feeding fish in with two crabs? I have been to several LFS and just love to watch the crabs posture with one another!

Can't make up my mind what I want in his tank. Any suggestions? And yes I have thought about a pleco, would like a pitbull pleco, but I think I can only get them in the fall.

 

[jeffruth]

Look into corys. I have three Julii city's and they are awesome. Fun to watch and very active.

 

[Fishguy2727]

Almost any type of cory and any small species of loaches will be a great bottom feeder. I would not do any type of crab or crayfish (although I think there is one species of dwarf crayfish that is safe in a community, but I have not had experience with it yet so I am not sure how safe it really is).

 

[alLexX]

fiddlers are both brackish and amphibious,try ghost shrimp or another kind of shrimp.

 

[skiweeangel]

Won't danios eat shrimp?

 

[alLexX]

i dont think so,but im not sure how big danios get.

 

[huma-huma]

I keep 3 glofish in with about 7 ghost shrimp...the glofish have never touched my shrimp. iid look into a golden algae eater...they grow about 3- inches long I beliieve and they are pretty effiecient. or possibly a mini- pleco... the golden algae should do ok with crabs, they are pretty fearless when it comes to other inverts

 

[alLexX]

golden algae eaters are bad news.they get really big and really aggressive.

 

[huma-huma]

goldens?? we may need another opinion on this.. mine is 5-6 months old and is 3-3.5 inches long and never harms another fish.. heck the worst he does is play tag with my mini plec.. and even at that he is too scared of him

 

[adadkins1]

I think this is the same thing as the Chinesse Algae Eater, which get huge and aggressive as alLexX said. They will kill other fish when they get mature, so you should have a plan on where to put yours.

Basically any cory, loaches like kuhlis etc. and ghost shrimp are some excellent scavengers. I have a lot of experince with ghosties and they are the best little clean up crew.

 

[huma-huma]

i do apologize, didnt realize that they got that big, hopefully mine doesnt, seeing as to how i love my golden ...

 

[alLexX]

I think this is the same thing as the Chinesse Algae Eater, which get huge and aggressive as alLexX said. They will kill other fish when they get mature, so you should have a plan on where to put yours.

Basically any cory, loaches like kuhlis etc. and ghost shrimp are some excellent scavengers. I have a lot of experince with ghosties and they are the best little clean up crew.

your right,there a colour variation of the chinese algae eater.i had one kill a goldfish bigger than him.

 

[Ickletas]

Yeah I have a standard colour Chinese Algae Eater and it's a pain in the backside to be fair. He was with the tank when I bought it and he isn't full grown yet (he's about 4-5inches) but he is tyrannical. The thing is that as they mature they eat less algae so they get to be close to useless if you want an algae cleaner, also they do like to try and suck the slime coats on other fish (according to my lfs they find Discus slime especially tasty!) and apparently have been know to try and suck their eyeballs too ewwwwwww!

 

[MartinBlank]

Amano shrimp get a bit bigger than cherry or ghost shrimp don't they? Just thinking they may be a safer bet if you are worried about them getting eaten.