Keep reading to discover our 10 favorite members of the cleaning team that every freshwater aquarium should have: rainbow sharks and red-tailed sharks. CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5 from Wikimedia Commons The plecostomus is one of the best-known fish in the aquarium world, especially among those that have never owned a fish tank. This is probably due to the way he grabs the sides of the tank with his mouth, scraping off any algae he can find and creating an absolute show of himself. Many people simply refer to plecos as piglet fish.
Fortunately, there are smaller species that may be appropriate. Plecos with rubber lips and a bristle nose only grow to about seven inches in adulthood. It's not good fish for a 10-gallon tank either, but you can consider them for a 30-gallon tank or more. If your tank is too small for a pleco, or you don't want to deal with the hassle of it destroying your living plants, consider the small otocinclus catfish instead.
These guys only grow a couple of inches, and they look like little plecos stuck to the sides of your tank. They're raising fish, so you'll need a minimum of six to keep them happy and healthy. Read on as we talk about which fish keep an aquarium clean by eating algae. The Siamese seaweed eater is one of the most effective fish for eating algae because it feeds on a variety of different types of algae.
The Pleco Bristlenose is at the forefront of the types of fish that can keep their aquarium clean by eating algae. They are quite aggressive finned tweezers, so they should only be kept with fish that swim quickly or in an aquarium just for their species. It's a shame, as far as I'm concerned, since this fish is not only a very good fish for cleaning aquariums, but it's also incredibly beautiful and interesting. However, they don't eat live plants and do well with smaller, more peaceful species of fish; they can become the target of cichlids, loaches and other predatory fish.
They are suitable for most aquarium sizes and can live happily with most small or medium sized fish. Others can also feed on aquarium plants, so be careful when adding algae eaters to a planted aquarium. Plecostomus is one of the best-known fish in the aquarium world, especially among those who have never owned a fish tank. Molly's are also a peaceful species that not many would consider to be one of the best fish to clean aquariums.
A major drawback of adding a shrimp stock to your fish tank is that fish can eat them. They will also consume leftover fish food and plant matter, making them one of the best cleaning fish you can have in your tank. You may add fish slowly and modify some of your maintenance practices to ensure that water quality is stable and safe. We also like the Yoyo locha, less known, easy to care for and very quiet for the community.
It's an excellent loach for cleaning aquariums and is worth a look. Eric is an aquarium enthusiast with more than two decades of experience caring for a wide variety of tropical fish. Some algae eaters dig into the substrate and eat and extract old material (old fish food, debris, fish droppings, etc. Larger fish easily see them as food, so choose them for aquariums with small tank companions in the community).
Don't rely on these fish to do all the work, you can't just add lots of cleaning fish and expect them to not do any work yourself.
