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I'm looking for a bottom feeder for my 30gallon tank. Something that won't eat my rasboras, but something either solitary or that does good in a pair or 3 some. I'm not looking into cories at this very moment, but eventually somewhere down the line.

My current stock is
-6 rasboars
-1 female betta
-2 platies


I'm thinking about moving the betta and platies to a seperate 10 gallon however when I get it set up.

So any thoughts or suggestions?

are you looking for a waste feeder to keep the tank clean or just a catfish for eye candy? corys like groups of course...they will school and be healthy in a school of 3, but as i learned, they dont "come alive" untill you have 6 or more.i dunno, i mean, if you want a cool looking fish that stays small, doesnt really eat waste, but easy to care for, i like my south american bumble bee cat. however, how big are the rasaboras? he will eat anything he can fit in his mouth, including whole shrimp pellets (1/4 of an inch around and 1/3" long!however, my specimen is almost full grown, he cant eat anything much larger, he isnt very agressive, he will just eat anything small enough to swallow,lol.). he would be great for a guppy tank when you wanted to keep the population of fry down,lol.

p.s. if you are moving the plats and beta out, why not add a school of corys? ask anyone here that owns them, they are a blast, very clean, very entertaining. the common varieties like bronzes are just about bulletproof(if water is so bad they cant get enough oxygen,they swim to the surface, swallow a gulp of air and absorb the oxygen through their intestine.

i dont have panda corys, but everyone tells me they are quite the commedians. as far as care, regular water changes and some shrimp pellets and hakiri algae wafers combined with any live or frozen treats you can add in are great!

im sure others here would have better suggestions than i. my only comment is, stay away from most loaches and plecos, with the exception of BN plecos and a few small loaches that do well solo to trio. no clown loaches or common plecos

Last edited by reun at 12-Dec-2005 19:36

Get a "true" Siamese Algae Eater. A great algae eater that can be kept as a single individual.

Loaches: 3 or 4 of these guys are super cool!
Skunk
YoYo
Zebra

Small plecos:
Clown
or BN

Ots: 3 or 4
Cute and great at algae!

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Get a school of 6 Corydoras & you wouldn't be disappointed.



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The bumble bee catfish sounds like a good idea. I'm not really looking for something to take care of any lazyness and what not, just more so to be there. That should be a little different than most tank set ups.

Cories are a good idea, but I don't plan on getting them for about another month or so. I'm not sure why, I just plan on waiting for them. It's a family room set up kind of tank, so I'm sure cories would add a lot of life and action to the tank.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

Cories are great but I personally really like loaches. 3 or 4 yo-yos would be fine...they're quite active, fun to watch, and I like the fact that they explore areas of the tank other than the bottom.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I love loaches but would like to caution you. The recommendation to get skunk loaches a couple of posts up is really not a very good one. Your tank is too small, and you have a betta in there. She'd be shredded to bits in no time at all.

If you ever did add cories they would kill them off in a tank that small as well. They would however leave your rasboras alone

Skunk loaches are completely peaceful in a large enough setup where they do not feel threatened by other bottom feeders (enough food and room). Mine are in my 125 gallon tank and have done well with the tetras, endlers, and assorted bottom feeders. Just a matter of environment.

Koi

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just keep in mind, if you do get a bumble bee catfish, make sure he looks like this

there are Asian bumblebee cats and Gaint bumblebee cats. the asian bumbles look completely differant, but the giant bumblebees look quite similar except for the face...they have a wider mouth and wont stay about 3"...i cant remember off hand but i think they get about 6"...not good cause they will eat anything they fit in their mouth,lol.

the only thing you need is good water peramiters,a really nice cave (he will spend most of his daytime in there, comming out only at twilight and in a darkened room, he seems to be awake from 9pm to 11am with breaks in between to rest from what i have noticed, occasionaly he does pop out to explore or snatch some food when the tank lights are on, be he is mostly nocturnal. the few sightings you will get during the day are well worth it though, you can see how his whiskers have gotten longer and his colors have filled out).

i feed a mixture of shrimp pellets (his favorite) hakiri sinking carnivore pellets,and hakiri vegtable sinking wafers, he eats them all, his favorites are live foods and shrimp pellets though. even without live foods though i have read they stay very healthy with just a mixture of high protien foods. mine seems to be doing well. they are a bit aggresive, they dont "attack" other fish, but he will get into push and shove matches with the other bottom feeders if he feels they have something better than what he is eating.

anyway, you can read up on them at several catfish sites, ask the other people here, they are pretty sweet. you will REALLY love him if you stay up late like i do watching tv and what not, i am up half the night, so i put a "moonlight" LED setup in my tank, it doesnt wake the barbs up, nor does it bother the cats, so i can watch him prowl the tank.

well, a ton of info you dont need, but there it is anyway

Just a quick comment to Brian1216s comment
about siamese algae eaters. These fish are
indeed schooling fish, and really shouldnt
be kept alone.

Another idea may be a spotted pictus, they
grow to 4 inches, and can be kept alone.
Very cool fish.
Dont know if it would eat harles or not.
Or maybe a cool small pleco. Lots of plecos are
exceptional at cleaning up waste food that falls
to the bottom.

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what sort of rasboars?, as this might limit what sort of cats are suitable. 2 ideas are:
banjo cat
and moth cat


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Billy was a scientist, Billy is no more. For what he thought was H20, was H2SO4

So far my favorite choices would have to be the south American bumble bee cat and the zebra loaches. Maybe I’ll do a combination of the two.

I have harlequin rasboras. Think the banjo cat would eat them? They look interesting and I’m going to have a look around for availability in my area.

Thanks for the help and suggestions everybody.

Well,
if you are considering a real bottom dweller
like a banjo, then they probably only will eat small fish that come really close to the bottom, and then only
once they grow large.
As Harlies are very middle-top fish, I doubt they would get eaten. However, i dont have any personal experience with banjos, so dont qoute me on it! They have a huuuuuge mouth, lol.

Zebra loaches are pretty aggressive little guys,
and I think they grow very large, I think about 7 inches?
They are very cool though. i think someone on here has a gorgeous trio of them.




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My harlies are fairly big and my banjo's don't eat them. Though saying that they don't even eat my tiny checker barbs for some reason, even though people keep telling me that they will lol.
If you are talking about these zebra loaches, they wont hurt anybody and they don't get to 7 inch

Last edited by synodontis at 16-Dec-2005 03:52

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Billy was a scientist, Billy is no more. For what he thought was H20, was H2SO4

Zebra loaches or Botia Striata. I have found yoyos to be moderately nippy, but a Betta may be too much temptation. Skunks are definitely very very nippy.

Or, how about some Kuhli loaches?