# Good bottom dwellers?



## humdedum

So now that things are stabilizing in my 50 gallon, I was looking at some bottom dwellers/feeders for the tank. I know a common pleco would be too large, and I want to keep the tank as a permanent home for any fish I add. 

My pH is around 8.4 but ridiculously stable because of the amount of natural mineral buffers in my water. I see in literature that bristlenose plecos prefer soft (I can provide that) and acidic (hmmm) water, so should I just move on? 

I suppose I could keep a school of cory cats, like peppered or julii (I suspect the stores are mis-labeling them) cats. 

Do you have any suggestions? I found out that I prefer more dynamic fish than mindless swimmers...that's why I take half an hour feeding my three cichlids and then take two seconds just to throw some flakes in for my platys.


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## Mr. fish

Snails... African Dwarf Frogs... Shrimp.. Etc..


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## humdedum

I saw the mystery snails at the store the other day...I also found some snail eggs on my live plant so I figure in a few days I'll find some anyways.


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## Mr. fish

^ I dont think thats a good thing lol


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## egoreise

I adore my apple snails (mystery snails). They are actually very entertaining and active and full of personality. And my cory cats.... And most definately my adf's.
Have you looked at any other dwarf plecos? liveaquaria.com has a bunch...


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## toddnbecka

Wild-caught BN species do need softer/acidic water for spawning, but the common aquarium-bred variety will live and breed just fine in your water. I use coral to buffer all my tanks, and I have BN running amok, every color but green.
A group of Synodontis petricola or lucipinnis would work much better than most Cory cats in your water.
If you want some mellow SA cichlids that play well with others I have some Australoheros oblongum juvies available.


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## humdedum

toddnbecka said:


> If you want some mellow SA cichlids that play well with others I have some Australoheros oblongum juvies available.


OH MY GOSH. OH MY GOSH. I really need to stay off the interwebz. A quick google search confirms that this is my DREAM fish. *spazzes out* Cichlids that don't kill each other, other fish, or imaginary fish? 

There's not a whole lot of literature on them...would it be safe to get maybe four and let them grow up in a 50 gallon (it's 4 feet long)? I can move the platys out to a ten gallon, I have an already cycled filter for a ten.


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## toddnbecka

Not much info because they're pretty rare in the hobby. They were imported from Uruguay some years ago, but nobody has been able to find them in the wild again since then. They're the smallest (and apparently only peaceful) member of the Australoheros complex. The red ceibals and a few other larger species have been circulating, but they're much more aggressive in general. You could actually keep 2 pairs in a 4' tank, the platys would be fine left where they are.


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## MetalHead

toddnbecka

i LOVE That fish! absoluetly love em! do you have any more info on these lil beauties? am tempted to start up my 56gl just for a pair of them!


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## toddnbecka

I've been keeping and breeding them for 3 years now, what do you want to know? They prefer hard, alkaline water, cooler temps (down to 60) are fine. Play well with anything too big to eat that won't beat up or intimidate them too much. 
Substrate spawners, they like floating plants like Najas or frogbit, the mother hangs the wigglers among them (and moves them around) until they're free-swimming. I spawned them in a 29 last fall, parents were left with the fry until the tank got too crowded, then moved back into the 75. 
Most of the pics of oblongums on the 'net are mine or Monte's. I don't have any really recent pics of my spawning pair, and haven't been able to upload anything to photobucket since a windows update a couple weeks ago took out the 32 bit browser option I had been using. They look better than ever now, even the smaller female has dorsal and anal fins extending over her tail. The largest male juvie from this last spawn is really something to see too, he's a show-quality fish all around.


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## Cichlid Man

There are so many to choose from, porthole catfish are larger and more interesting than the average cory and don't eat small fish, they are also very relaxed and slow swimmers sometimes just hovering in open space


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