Clean Up Crew's

[jamie2010]

i aint got a clue what these are so gimme some info please guys
cheers

 

[Kombat]

"Clean-up crew" is a term given to bottom-dwellers that eat leftover food, and sometimes algae-eaters.

The misnomer is of course that these fish produce their own waste, so in my mind you aren't gaining anything as far as "clean up" goes. They just replace leftover food/algae with poop.

Karl

 

[dwarfgourami]

Karl has put it very concisely indeed. IMO the only reason for keeping any of the cleanup crew brigade should be - that you genuinely want to keep that fish or invertebrate.

Common cleanup crew include:

common or sailfin plecos- eat algae and leftover food, but also need to be fed, need a BIG tank and poop for England

bristlenose plecs- smaller, eat algae and leftover food, but also poop a lot

Chinese Algae Eaters- eat algae when young, when mature they prefer to snack on their friends, IMO totally useless creatures that should not be sold for community tanks

otos- small plecs that eat certain algae (+catfish food), need to be kept in groups and in mature tank

corydoras- eat fresh leftover food but not algae, need substrate to be clean = vacuumed regularly, schooling fish, medium bioload

amano shrimps- eat leftover food and algae, prefer to be in groups, relatively low bioload

apple snails and other snails- eat algae (I think) and leftover food

 

[Tsi_User]

Karl has put it very concisely indeed. IMO the only reason for keeping any of the cleanup crew brigade should be - that you genuinely want to keep that fish or invertebrate.

Common cleanup crew include:

common or sailfin plecos- eat algae and leftover food, but also need to be fed, need a BIG tank and poop for England

bristlenose plecs- smaller, eat algae and leftover food, but also poop a lot

Chinese Algae Eaters- eat algae when young, when mature they prefer to snack on their friends, IMO totally useless creatures that should not be sold for community tanks

otos- small plecs that eat certain algae (+catfish food), need to be kept in groups and in mature tank

corydoras- eat fresh leftover food but not algae, need substrate to be clean = vacuumed regularly, schooling fish, medium bioload

amano shrimps- eat leftover food and algae, prefer to be in groups, relatively low bioload

apple snails and other snails- eat algae (I think) and leftover food

Some kinds of loaches are considered "clean up crews". However I agree with the two previous posters, clean up crews produce waste which throws the whole "clean up" theory kind of out the window.