When you are dealing with a smaller tank, such as Fluval EDGE Aquariums by Hagen, the choice of a bottom fish depends, to a wonderful extent, on the tank's present and planned inhabitants. Not necessarily in fish alone, but in live plants as nicely. When there are no plants in the planned aquascape, there is little likelihood you may well be bringing in pests such as snails, so that problem is not a factor for consideration. For my most recent nano aquarium set-up, the Fluval Edge, which holds only 6 U.S. gallons when filled ideal to the best, I added a juvenile Botia lohachata as the scavenger.
The tank is nicely planted and bringing snails into the ecosystem with the live plants, even nicely rinsed posed a distinct possibility. As a matter of fact, I found an empty snail shell floating below the top glass highly soon immediately after I added the fish!
Even though there are a wide choice of bottom fish readily available for the tiny community aquarium, I tend to use either Botia striatus or Botia lohachata today. They do just fine in my high pH water and are not that typical looking. The Botia striatus I have kept for the longest, and they have often been highly shy. It may possibly be the tank they are in, which is the largest of my modest community aquariums. Or, the reality that they discovered a excellent hiding location proper from the start out and hardly ever exit it to scavenge for their meals. They have generally preferred to leave it only when they are hungry.
I have added the Botia lohachata in two diverse tanks. One is in the Fluval Edge mentioned above exactly where there is a single individual. The other a classic ten gallon planted method with two individuals as properly as a pair of South Amercian Appistogramma aggasiz Dwarf Cichlids. This is a heavily planted aquarium. In every single instance, the Botia lohachata are significantly more active than the B. striatus. In the ten gallon tank, the two there even feed from the leading!
Whenever the pH is high, I also tend to contain a Plecostomus. But be cautious of the water conditions when adding these fish, they do not do nicely in acid water. When kept in high pH, 1 will help control algae formation in almost any tank, no matter what its inhabitants may be. Correct now one is doing quite nicely in my Tropiquarium 88 exactly where it was placed after the biological filter matured. The tank has quite number of African Cichlids and it is doing fairly nicely in spite of these aggressive tank mates. Plecostomus can grow over time, but nonetheless appear quite content material to clean their locations well. Aggressivity is not a prevalent trait with these fish, they are not especially appetizing, so they are suitable for each passive and moderately aggressive communities.
If the fluval tank is new, and every little thing was lately bought, chances are you do not actually need to have to put in a catfish just but. I prefer to let the fluval aquariums start to add some organic wastes as the old aquarium for the initial six to eight weeks. Only after the Nitrogen Cycle has been began and matured would I normally think of adding bottom fish of any kind. The fluval edge aquarium doesn't have to have the added fish load, and the filter is so clean it need to be in a position to deal with the wastes though every thing settles and gets into balance. Given that I do not feed bottom fish separately, I feel it is finest to let the method get a small bit of waste in the bottom for a scavenger to acquire ahead of they are deemed as new arrivals.
For most frequent community aquariums, I use 1 of the a number of Corydoras sp. armoured catfish as the bottom feeder of option. There is a massive assortment of selections in these dwarf catfish that will make one of them the perfect complement to a smaller aquarium community. You can choose in between solids, stripes, blotches, albino and a lot of other possibilities.
These are scaleless catfish. If you should certainly have a predicament with Ich or other diseases and require to treat, read the directions on any medication particularly meticulously. Remember that they are really vulnerable to many of the medications usually made use of to kill a number of parasites. Frequently half doses are the maximum with these fish in a tank - but often follow the written directions to be safe.
One of the major challenges new aquarists face is the presence of algae. I have kept fish for forty years or so, and I have grown really applied to seeing it in the tank and accept it as natural. Lots of people do not. They attempt to use a bottom fish to eliminate it. As mentioned, the many Plecostomus sorts are the pretty best of these. They are so ugly they are fascinating. Personally I appreciate them immensely. The predicament is that a large number of aquascapes are maintained in an acid range, and this is deadly to alkaline loving Plecostomus. When placed in acid water they sometimes turn white and die, so be cautious and only use them when the pH is 7.2 or above.
1 of the natural techniques to take away algae is to ask a bottom fish, like the Plecostomus to eat it as part of his diet. This by no implies a thorough way to eliminate the growths, but it can help maintain the growths in check. Chinese Algae Eaters (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri), the Siamese Flying Fox (Crossochelius siamensis) and the more prevalent Flying Fox (Epalseorhynchos kallopterus) are also used to help attempt to control the algae. I prefer either of the flying foxes which appear to prefer to eat algae most of the time.
The Siamese Flying fox is known to be a much better algae eater - in particular when this fish is kept in little schools. The Chinese Algae Eater will eat some algae when it is really young, but typically turns aggressive towards other swimming inhabitants. If probable they sometimes try to suck the protective slime coating off other fish as a no cost meal. As they age they prefer to be lazy rather than work on algae as meal.
