ThatGuy85

Well unfortunately I didn't read much about this little guy until I got him. And just like the fishlore article said, he's starting to latch on to my poor sword-tail platy and chasing the other faster fish around.

So given my current community, which fish do you guys recommend I get to keep my tank spotless? I've thought about 2 or 3 otto's but I hear they're pretty hard to care for. Any suggestions?

Current lineup:
2x Green Glofish
3x Red Glofish
1x swordtail platy
1x suburst platy

agabr123

3 or 5 otos would be great, they're not hard to care for it's just that the majority of them (probably about 80%) die within the first month that you have them, but if you can get them to live for longer than a month they'll generally live for years. the problem is that they are wild caught, and don't get any vegetation (algae, fresh veggies, plant matter, etc) from the time they're caught until the time they get to your tank (unless the LFS ensures that they eat which most wont). because they don't get any veggies there is a certain kind of bacteria in their stomach that will die without it and cause them to starve. otherwise they're amazing little fish and really do a number on algae

you could also get some nerite snails, their eggs will only hatch in brackish water so you don't have to worry about 100s of baby snails in your tank

i'd suggest getting one more glofish and then having, for example
6 glofish
3 platies (if you have two males, i'd get another male, if you have two females, i'd get another female, if you have a male and a female, i'd get another female)
2 german blue rams (really pretty fish but can be very sensitive to water parameters, make sure your tank is very clean)
5 otos

and that would have you pretty fully stocked

joshthefisherman

Thats some good info on the ottos agabr thanks ill keep that in mind they are one of the most common fish i see floating in tanks at stores.

ThatGuy85

Yeah I've been contemplating getting one more green glofish, but I'd also like to get one blue gouarami and a black molly. I'll see about getting perhaps 3 otto's and hopefully the little guys don't die on me.

What about the Bristle Nose Pleco? They do a good job of eating algae and stay fairly small right?

agabr123

the BN plecos get to about six inches and do great with algae

a black mollie would be fine in place of the third platy that i listed, the blue gourami might get a bit too big for your tank, a pearl gourami might be a better choice and they're more peaceful