Bottom Eating Fish In A Fry Tank?

[sted]

hi can you put for example a plec ??? in a fry tank to help clean the bottom or would this not work?

 

[GavinH]

I've done this plenty of times with no problems.

But some Plecs can get quite big, so I've always used Ancistrus instead as they are less likely to outgrow the fry tank.

 

[fish48]

corydoras catfish would be a better choice cleaning the bottom of the tank plecs are good for cleaning algae off the glass some plecs can grow more then a foot long .
bristlenose plecs are good for small tanks they normally grow to a bout 4”to 5”

 

[sted]

thats great thank you! i have a bristnose in my community tank which is only about 10cm big and also some very small catfish which would be less likly to attack the fry?

 

[helterskelter]

Some pleco's inc Ancistrus can learn to hunt fry.

I've seen it quite a few time in the past, I know fish48 had one eating his Heterandria formosa before.
What mine did was to sit in a bottom corner of the tank, and once a baby had swam down the corner to the bottom, it would jump on it and easily eat it!

Butterly pleco's also do this, but never seen any Oto's so they may be worth a try.

 

[OldMan47]

I tend to use cories for simply eating excess food that falls to the bottom of a fry tank. They are somewhat carnivorous but do not hunt fry like so many other fish will. They are not safe to use with typical egg layers because they do love to eat fish eggs. No fish is a substitute for a gravel vac though, they do not eat fish waste, merely excess food.

 

[sted]

No fish is a substitute for a gravel vac though, they do not eat fish waste, merely excess food.

i fully understand this but i was more thinking about food etc and also would a Cory / catfish give the fry more of a eating force IE a predator instinct to eat as i read somewhere that some fry don't eat unless they feel threatened?

 

[OldMan47]

I have no idea about the fish psychology aspect, but cories move around nicely and will eat up lots of left over food.