Malawi Clean Up Crew

[rixy]

hi,i'm currently setting up a malawi tank.tank,water,rocks etc set up,fish in a tank at lfs waiting for me to pick up(approx 2 weeks)what fish can i use as a cleanup crew??? ps tank is a 55 gallon.thanks in advance.

 

[Krib Crazy]

I use clown loaches and common plecos. They do fine with them.

 

[Soaup]

I cant get over how unsucessfull i am with them. Everyone says their fine but everytime i have a pleco he gets beat on and the only clown loach i had was getting picked on and he jumped out and killed himself.

 

[Krib Crazy]

Sorry to hear that. But I have had many plecs. You need to get plecos that are around the same size as your cichlids. And when ever I het pleco I always get two.

 

[freddyk]

Since clownloaches, reaching over a foot in length, would hardly be suitable for this tank I'd look at synodontis instead. Syno. Petricola and Multipunctatus work particularly well with Africans, but there are many species that will do the job. For pleco's, bristlenose is the best option.

But don't get it just for clean up, get them because you like them. I can assure you that africans will leave nothing uneaten - your loaches or catfish would need to be fed because they won't find much to live off of otherwise. The plecos will help with algae, but algae in an mbuna aquarium promotes the natural grazing behavior that 'clean' tanks miss out on.

 

[rixy]

had syno's before(nice)don't know anything about bristlenoses.

 

[rixy]

been reading about multipunatus and petricola.very,very interested in getting some.how many should i get?how much would be a fair price to pay for themtank is a 55 gallon and will have approx 20ish various malawi.subsrate is coral gravel.would this be ok

 

[freddyk]

More active in groups, and fairly aggressive themselves, go with somwhere around 4 Multis or 6 Petricola. Can't give you much on price since I'm on the other side of the world but aroudn here' they're pretty pricey - about 25 bucks each for juveniles.

 

[rixy]

would the coral gravel be ok with the syno's

 

[freddyk]

Yes it will

 

[rixy]

thanks freddyk

 

[Fella]

Yeah, synodontis are pretty expensive I found. A trio for £90 in my local LFS, and £32 each.

I got a quote on some mail order as well, same kind of price, plus £30 postage!

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Syno wise I got my petricola for £17.50 in London and the multi for £24 in Enfield. Neither really small either.
Cichlid wise I got all 12 of mine (3 different malawi species, not all that easy to find) for £5 each. Granted they are youngsters but even so. That was from Rift Valley cichlids in Boscombe, Bournemouth.
My other synos (eupterus mostly) I picked up 4 adults for 9.99 each and the youngsters were about half that each. So it really does vary depending on where you go.
Hugs,
P.

 

[rabbit]

Ive got a bigger rusty plec and a L species in there and the rusty is awesome at the algae on the glass. the most prolific cleaner ive had the lfs uses them in most of there tanks and there cheap i paid £5.99 for a 2-3" beauty