Which Fish Could I Get To Clean My Sand?

[madmattm]

Hi

I have a 120l tropical tank stocked with:
12 silvertip tetras
6 glowlight tetras
8 cherry barbs
2 pelvicachromis pulchers (kribensis)

I have juwel hi lite lighting and a juwel filter

I try not to overfeed my fish but still my sand looks very dirty. I do regular water changes of course and everything like that, and try to clean my gravel with a syphon or plastic tube but the dirt gets around the plants and i end up pulling them all out. I would like to buy a smallish number of fish which would help clean the sand for me. any suggestions?

Thankyou

 

[stoneagedinosaur]

Corys? They're kind of made for the job. I have pepper and sterbai - very nice too

 

[walkers101]

MTS ?

 

[ian]

The Gravelus Vacus.

 

[mattlee]

corys will not clean the substrate.....! yes they are bottom feeders but they need feeding the same as any other fish and not left to scavenge.

if you mean you have food left over then its simple dont feed as much, try feeding a small amount then going back in 15 minutes and add a very small amount again until you are familiar with the amount of food your fish will eat.

if you mean that the substrate is dirty from poop then just do more cleaning as nothing will eat poop! if there was such a fish we would all have a few......!

things like shrimp and snails are good for eating left over food and eating scraps left over but they can only do so much and with snails the more food supply they get the more they breed and before you know it you have gone from 3/4 snails to 134..... depending on the snail of course.

i think the kribs would eat the shrimp so that counts them out, so its either feed less or clean more or get a few snails.... but snails do poo alot themselves!!!!

 

[hamfist]

.... as nothing will eat poop! if there was such a fish we would all have a few......!

Ain't that the truth !!

 

[mattlee]

.... as nothing will eat poop! if there was such a fish we would all have a few......!

Ain't that the truth !!

but then even they would have to poop so it would be a vicious circle

the gravelus vacus......

 

[madmattm]

.

 

[Ben M]

i think the gravelus vacus was a sensible reply.

cheers

 

[madmattm]

.

 

[Ben M]

how mature!

cheers

 

[Curiosity101]

I agree gravelus vacus was a sensible reply (and whitty! ). People are too quick to try and cut corners.
I would always have MTS in a sand based tank as they do a great job of turning sand over and stopping nasty gas pockets forming. But at the end of the day if you want clean sand you have to do it yourself. Think of it this way, your tank is a closed system, the only way in or out is by removing and replacing manually.

 

[madmattm]

.

 

[Curiosity101]

Oo somebody is feeling awfully grumpy today. Should I flog myself for the spelling mistake?

 

[K-Holed]

These sorts of threads seem to rear their heads with depressing regularity. No fish should ever be selected for its abilty to maintain an aquarium. If your substrate is dirty, invest in a gravel cleaner. If you have alage, scrape it off or take preventative measures.

Each fish you have should be selected because you want that fish, not because it will save you time and effort.

Kind regards

Jimi

nb - one notable expetion would be the inclusion of dither fish, for the sole purpose of keeping another fish happy.