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| Photo by jorge.correa |
When you are dealing with a smaller tank, the choice of a bottom fish depends, to a great extent, on the tank's present and planned inhabitants. Not necessarily in fish alone, but in live plants as well.
When there are no plants in the planned aquascape, there is little chance you may be bringing in pests such as snails, so that problem is not a factor for consideration. For my most recent aquarium set-up, the Fluval Edge, which holds only 6 U.S. gallons when filled right to the top, I added a juvenile Botia lohachata as the scavenger.
The tank is well planted and bringing snails into the ecosystem with the live plants, even well rinsed posed a distinct possibility. As a matter of fact, I found an empty snail shell floating under the top glass very soon after I added the fish!
Although there is a wide selection of bottom fish available for the small community aquarium, I tend to use either Botia striatus or Botia lohachata nowadays. They do just fine in my high pH water and are not that common looking. The Botia striatus I have kept for the longest, and they have always been extremely shy. It may be the tank they are in, which is the largest of my small community aquariums. Or, the fact that they found a great hiding place right from the start and rarely exit it to scavenge for their meals. They have always preferred to leave it only when they are hungry.
I have added the Botia lohachata in two different tanks. One is in the Fluval Edge mentioned above where there is a single individual. The other a classic ten gallon planted system with two individuals as well as a pair of South Amercian Appistogramma aggasiz Dwarf Cichlids. This is a heavily planted aquarium. In each instance, the Botia lohachata are much more active than the B. striatus. In the ten gallon tank, the two there even feed on the top!
Whenever the pH is high, I also tend to include a Plecostomus. But be careful of the water conditions when adding these fish, they do not do well in acid water. When kept in high pH, one will help control algae formation in almost any tank, no matter what its inhabitants may be. Right now one is doing quite well in my Tropiquarium 88 where it was placed after the biological filter matured. The tank has quite a number of African Cichlids and it is doing quite well in spite of these aggressive tank mates. Plecostomus can grow over time, but still seem quite content to clean their areas well.
Aggressivity is not a common trait with these fish, they are not particularly appetizing, so they are suitable for both passive and moderately aggressive communities.
If the tank is new, and everything was recently purchased, chances are you don't actually need to put in a catfish just yet. I prefer to let the tank begin to add some organic wastes as the tank matures for the first six to eight weeks. Only after the Nitrogen Cycle has been started and matured would I normally consider adding bottom fish of any kind. The tank doesn't need the added fish load, and the filter is so clean it should be able to handle the wastes while everything settles and gets into balance. Since I do not feed bottom fish separately, I feel it is best to let the system get a little bit of waste in the bottom for a scavenger to find before they are considered as new arrivals.
For most common community aquariums, I use one of the various Corydoras sp. armored catfish as the bottom feeder of choice. There is a huge variety of choices in these dwarf catfish that will make one of them the perfect complement to a smaller aquarium community. You can pick between solids, stripes, blotches, albino and a lot of other possibilities.
These are scaleless catfish. If you should have a problem with Ich or other diseases and need to treat, read the directions on any medication very carefully. Remember that they are quite vulnerable to many of the medications typically used to kill many parasites. Generally, half doses are the maximum with these fish in a tank - but always follow the written directions to be safe.
One of the main problems new aquarists face is the presence of algae. I have kept fish for forty years or so, and I have grown quite used to seeing it in the tank and accept it as natural. Many people don't. They try to use a bottom fish to eliminate it. As mentioned, the various Plecostomus types are the very best of these. They are so ugly; they are interesting. Personally, I enjoy them immensely. The problem is that many aquascapes are maintained in an acid range, and this is deadly to alkaline loving Plecostomus. When placed in acid water they often turn white and die, so be careful and only use them when the pH is 7.2 or above.
One of the natural ways to remove algae is to ask a bottom fish, like the Plecostomus to eat it as part of his diet. This by no means a thorough way to eliminate the growths, but it can help keep the growths in check. Chinese Algae Eaters (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri), the Siamese Flying Fox (Crossochelius siamensis) and the more common Flying Fox (Epalseorhynchos kallopterus) are also used to help try to control the algae. I prefer either of the flying foxes which seem to prefer to eat algae most of the time.
The Siamese Flying fox is known to be a better algae eater
- especially when this fish is kept in small schools. The Chinese Algae Eater will eat some algae when it is quite young but often turns aggressive towards other swimming inhabitants. If possible they often try to suck the protective slime coating off other fish as a free meal. As they age they prefer to be lazy rather than work on algae as a meal.
- especially when this fish is kept in small schools. The Chinese Algae Eater will eat some algae when it is quite young but often turns aggressive towards other swimming inhabitants. If possible they often try to suck the protective slime coating off other fish as a free meal. As they age they prefer to be lazy rather than work on algae as a meal.
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