A House Keeper

[EileenS]

I am a newbie and can same one tell me what fish under one inch will hoover up any rubbish on the bottom for me. thank you :

 

[Neal]

A bulldog pleco, a hillstream loach/hong kong pleco, and some shrimp can also do that job.

 

[Bloo]

By rubbish do you mean uneaten food ? Because if you mean waste and deritus, nothing will help but a siphon.

Hillstream loaches do not live on the substrate - rather on the glass (in absence of large smooth rocks) and will do little to nothing to help with leftover food.

Amano shrimp (algae as well as leftover food) are fabulous for this. Or corys (leftover food only - they don't touch algae). Otos are great algae eaters - but don't really scavenge for leftover food. Bulldog plec will do a bit of both, but are large waste producers themselves.

What exactly is it you want this fish to do ?
I suggest you just don't over feed and you won't have a problem - and no need for extra fish that will produce extra waste

 

[dwarfgourami]

Just want to add to bloozoo's post that cories will only hoover up fresh food- and they are sensitive to bacteria in the substrate, so you have to be careful and do gravel vacs. And as already mentioned, any cleaning fish you put in their will produce waste of its own- whatever goes in(to the cleaner) has got to come out.

This question comes up frequently and there seems to be a general feeling that Mother Nature ought to have provided a creature to save us doing maintenance on our tanks. I am still waiting for her to evolve a cat or dog species that will tidy the rest of the house for me! In the meantime I shall have to stick with my vac and my gravel vac.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

And, provided you get any of the fish mentioned, they still have to be fed their own special food, along with the scraps they pick up. So, it might be better in the end to siphon up the debris, but I find corydoras and otocinclus to be cute additions to the tank.

 

[WILDER]

Best clean up crew are us.

 

[EileenS]

thank you for all your replies

 

[Durbkat]

A bulldog pleco, a hillstream loach/hong kong pleco, and some shrimp can also do that job.

Bulldog plecos get to be 6" long. I don't believe there is any fish that will stay under 1 inch, even a 1 inch fish is really small you probably couldn't really see it if it was under 1".

 

[Bloo]

Bulldog plecos get to be 6" long. I don't believe there is any fish that will stay under 1 inch, even a 1 inch fish is really small you probably couldn't really see it if it was under 1".

There are lots of fish that only grow up to 1" (or under)

 

[Neal]

Such as?

 

[Durbkat]

Yeah such as? I've never heard or seen them before.

 

[Bloo]

For starters - some really well known ones that only reach up to 1":

Dwarf Puffers
Endlers Livebearers
Dwarf Cory (Corydoras hastatus)
Spotted Rasbora (rasbora maculata)
And just a hair'sbreath over....
Sparkling gouramies (trichopsis pumilus)
Mosquito Fish (females slightly larger than males)
Asian Moth Catfish (Hara jerdoni)
Myers Hatchet Fish (carnegiella myersi)

There are lots more .....

 

[Shelly_Otterkin]

Not all are under a inch but you get the pic.
http/www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Oddball,%20Mini-Fishes.htm

 

[Bloo]

Oh this is brilliant - just found a whole website with pretty much hundreds of tiny little fish

Down side is, it's in German But you can click on the pics under each of the "Family" sections, and it will say how big they get in cm's (in the left hand panel).

So hope that helps for people looking for 1" fish - you just have to know where to look

Mini Fish