What Catfish To Buy?

[x-Twinkle-x]

I am unsure of what catfish to buy for my small 70L tank.
The current stocking is 1 CT betta boy, 4 male swordtails, 3 platys, 1 dojo loach, 1 molly, and a frog which I believed to be an ADF but now Im unsure if he is an ACF, but he is fine in there atm so for the time being I am going to leave him in there lol .

Anyway, I am after a small catfish that will eat algae effectively but will not grow too big, & is not vicious or anything like that.
I have some corys in another tank so I am looking for something different.

Thanks in advance

Edited to say.. I am going to the LFS tomorrow so if anybody has any ideas then I can see if the LFS has them.. in the mean time I will keep browsing the internet for ideas lol

 

[grimmy]

i wold get cory catfish

 

[jayjay]

I have some corys in another tank so I am looking for something different.

i wold get cory catfish

....

Anyway, Otto's will be your best bet.

 

[grimmy]

how Pictus Catfish

 

[jayjay]

I am after a small catfish that will eat algae effectively but will not grow too big

how Pictus Catfish

Pictus don't eat algae, get about 6" (not small) and could probably eat the platies.

 

[Yetti]

You could get the ottos as Jay Jay mentioned, but you could get a rubber-lipped pleco or a pit bull pleco instead. Pictus catfish grow larger than six inches.

 

[-germ-]

I wouldn't go for pitbulls as a surface cleaner they tend to spend most of their time on the substrate, while they'd keep it spotless (they are scavengers) they won't keep your glass clean, maybe you could combine Otos and Parotocinclus? I have the two together and it seems to work really well.

Rubber lips would be suitable but supposedly prefer good water movement.

Edited for tiredness induced stupidity....

 

[Teelie]

Nothing beats algae cleaning on glass than the Handus scrubbitis (hand scrubbing). Most algae eating plecs do a good job with larger jobs but the finer, smaller bits of algae can get overlooked, plus they tend to increase the bioload, meaning more waste to manage all for doing a little less scrubbing on the glass with a cloth. I keep several plecs but not for algae cleaning. Ottos do a better job but still miss some of the smaller stuff.

IMO, you shouldn't look for a fish or any animal to do that particular kind of maintenence. It usually can be solved by lowering the light on the tank, less feeding of food and more frequent water changes.

 

[-germ-]

IMO, you shouldn't look for a fish or any animal to do that particular kind of maintenence. It usually can be solved by lowering the light on the tank, less feeding of food and more frequent water changes.

But surely if you have tank space, algae and a desire for some catfish then adding some Otos isn't going to hurt anyone?

 

[Teelie]

No, not at all. I meant to say don't rely on them to do it all. I've kept Ottos in the past and they did well with the algae but not perfect.

 

[rowdyburns21]

I love my clown pleco, shy at first but they come out of their skin and have a real good charecter IMO

 

[Spooky76]

The little octisynclus catfish are great little suckers, they clean algae and are tiny, I think about 1" is about the average, although they like to be kept in numbers of 3 or more.

I think my spellings crap there, but if you say it how I spelt it you should get the idea

 

[-germ-]

Otocinclus

 

[Spooky76]

Smart arse