hi guys i need ONE bottom feeder to clean up the waste food the fish in my tank drop or miss........i just want one ..and not a plec.plecs are off the list,but i was wondering whats readily available,wont grow too big and does not require specific food / can live comfortably on the cichlid foods,krill,worms etc..and needs to be a big uncomplicated eater..........please post your suggestions reasons and pics if possible please

Juripari eartheaters are always sifting through the sand. However I wouldn't rely solely on a fish to clean up waste because remember they will also create waste, so even if you had five fish that did the same job, you're going to end up with waste that needs removing manually

in my 220 i have a pictus catfish. they grow to about 6 inches(mines full grown) and are from south america. they need no specific diet and water the same as oscars. mine does an adequate job of cleaning what the oscars drop and all i add are algea waffer once or twice a week for him. they also eat earthworms and from what ive notice basically anything they can find.

now in my 180 i have a chinese algea eater. they grow to about 10 inches(mines about 7 inches now). i feed him nothing special. all he gets are the crumbs from the oscars and a few waffer once or twice a week. they are a little more aggressive than the pictus but with what i have in my tank there is no problems at all.

a couple of suggestions for you

necromancer4 wrote:


thats the kind of fish i need......i want them to eat the crumbs that are dropped and i only want one fish the pictus and chinese algae sound perfect ...see what else is suggested ...any pics guys

OFL wrote:




after i feed the sand is covered in crumbs and none of the fish touch them as soon as they hit the sand......the jd pics up the bigger pieces but i just want ONE fish to help out as im fed up with the wasted food having to be vacumed out every other day to keep the sand free of debris.......i got a bit of tank O.C.D.

this is where a water current inside the tank plays
an important role. the filter set up should have one
suction point and one discharge point so that all
dirt ( waste and left over foods) will be driven to
the suction line, filtered and processed by good bacteria
then return the water processed and clean. even the power
head that creates ripple in the tank, i'd choosed to pass
the water in the filtering box to avoid waste circling around
too long. i also observed that good directional current in the
tank reduces the gas formation in the sand!

just an idea to consider without additional waste producer.

biggamehunter wrote:
any pics guys[/quote]

heres a couple of pics



sorry its a little blurry

i like the spotted pictus...but i am struggling to get a pictus cat anywhare thanks for taking the time to get the pics for me necro

PAUL wrote:


thanks for the info paul but the reason for the need of a cat in my tank is the tank is 36" deep the waters about 32" off the sand bed ...theres 2 fx5s running and an internal 1000lph so i think i got PLENTY OF CIRCULATION but anything down low enough to move the heavy FOOD off the sand stirs up the fine white sand i use and against a black background my tank looks like a SNOW GLOBE also i dont want to fill my filters unnecesarily with food when a catfish that only grows to 6" can eat it !!!!!!!! i dont need to worry about the single 6" fish producing biolad as the tank and HUGE BIOLOGICAL FILTER can cope with a few cats of this size ...but as i say in my post i just want ONE.... this makes far more sense for the amount of biolad produced by one pictus cat than to stir up my sand and risk dammaging the impellas in my fx5,s AND to clog up my filters with all that waste food thats costing me money and cut my hours of vacuming.......but thanks for your input it is greatly valued

i've got your point. but perhaps you were not aware that
any fish will grow 35% of whatever food they take. can you
imagine how big your pictus cat fish will be after taking
those left over foods, unless it is design just stir the sand
with left over foods and drive them toward your suction line.

i have a lot of design for sewer treatment plant, swimming pools
filtering system,deep fryer used oil filetring system, etc, etc.
the best way to avoid clogging of filetring system is to have easy
acces to the top most media, replace it with a new one, and continue
the process.

ahhh...... a pictus will only grow to a max of about 6 inches reguardless of how much you feed it. its genetics, like you or me no matter how much we eat were not going to grow any more than our dna is programmed for.(well no taller that is )

tropical-fish-pictures.com/fish-pictures...s-multipunctatus.jpg

i have one of these in my tank i think they are pretty cool