Plecos

[FreshwaterTropical]

S there any fish that can work As a substitute for a pleco. Looking for something that will eat algae but not a pleco.

 

[maxwellag]

S there any fish that can work As a substitute for a pleco. Looking for something that will eat algae but not a pleco.

Otocinclus catfish, nerite snails, or amano shrimp are good algae eaters.

 

[GodFan]

Ive heard that mystery snaikls are good although mine just laid on the ground till it died... (evil guppies) I know otocinclus are good but be careful they can be fragile.

 

[maxwellag]

Ive heard that mystery snaikls are good although mine just laid on the ground till it died... (evil guppies) I know otocinclus are good but be careful they can be fragile.

I have had countless mystery snails, and mine never ate algae... but mine were very active

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Can snails be in a tank without live plants or do they need live plants?

 

[maxwellag]

Can snails be in a tank without live plants or do they need live plants?

No, they don't need live plants. Although they do eat plants if they can find them. If you don't have plants feed them sinking pellets or feed a little extra so some food sinks to the bottom for them

 

[Ralphie126]

My Red tailed shark is an alge eater.. it wont eat ANY flakes.... only alage wafers

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Are there any places that stay under 6in. At the most.

 

[Ralphie126]

red tailed shark grows slowly to about 5 inches

 

[jeffp]

pitbull pleco stay pretty small, under 4in i think

 

[Aces11]

Bristtlenose plecos stay small as well. Mine is about 4 inches I think.

 

[agwats]

pitbull pleco stay pretty small, under 4in i think

Pitbulls max out around 2 inches as long as they are really pitbull plecos and not rubberlips, which are sometimes sold under the common name pitbull pleco but get substantially larger 5-7 inches. Pitbulls, like otos, prefer to be in groups so if you go with those plan on getting 3 or 4. Bn plecos are also a good choice as they stay under 6 inches and are good algae eaters but they do have a very large bio load.

If you wanted to stay away from plecos I would suggest Siamese algae eaters. They stay smallish (4-5inches) and are excellent algae eaters. But do your research because other fish are often sold as SAE. You don't want to end up with a chinese algae eater instead. CAE are not good algae eaters and can become absolute terrors in a tank. They get aggressive and are known to eat the slime coat off of slower moving or sleeping fish. Definitely not cool