Algae Eater

[raquelds]

I have a tank with mostly African cichlids (a few peaceful fish because my LFS told me they were OK and I didn't know any better at the time):

3 brilliant rasboras
3 rosy barbs
1 jurupari
1 yellow labidochromis
1 black calvus
1 tretocephalus
1 brichardi

I plan on keeping it as a Lake Tanganyika setup and moving the rasboras and barbs to my community tank once I have more room.

Can anyone recommend a good algae eater for this kind of setup?

 

[freddyk]

Any pleco will generally be ignored, and most have the armor to take any aggression if they end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bristle nose are very popular for rift lake setups because they're decent cleaners and have proven to do well in all water types.

 

[snowyangel]

Small loaches like botia rostrata or yoyo loaches. They grow no more than 5 inches and are quite robust imo. Just added 3 rostrata to my dwarf cichlid tank and they're doing great.

 

[freddyk]

Small loaches like botia rostrata or yoyo loaches

These are not algae eaters.

 

[Ferris]

I agree with freddyk, bristlenose plec or I have a sailfin plec in my Mbuna tank, which is spotless thanks to him. Sailfin's get bigger than bristlenoses and even the most agressive of my cochlids stay out of his way.

 

[snowyangel]

Small loaches like botia rostrata or yoyo loaches

These are not algae eaters.

I know. I just re-read the algae eater part. I mostly saw the "smaller size" part of the question.