tony

I have 2 albino cory cats in my 20 gallon aquarium and I am thinking about getting a few more. Is this a good idea? I also have alot of brown algae throughout my tank. I know that cories are good bottom feeders, but will they the algae as well? If not, what are some small fish that will?
I would greatly appreciate any help with these questions.

Thank You

Gunnie

Depending on what other fish you have in your tank, more corys would be a good idea for that tank. They do better in larger numbers, but if your tank is already overstocked, you may need to make some changes before adding more corys, and if your tank is not cycled, adding more fish right now would be a bad idea. Is it a "new" tank? By that, I mean is it a newly set up tank? Otocinclus love the brown algae (diatoms), but that problem should only be temporary. The diatoms should disappear on their own after a few weeks. If you are able to add otos to your tank, you will have to feed them veggies after the diatoms disappear.

0morrokh

Sorry, but cories don't eat algae. A group of Otos or a Bristle Nose pleco would be good algae eaters. Getting a couple more cories would be great provided you have room in the tank. What other fish are there in it?

Butterfly

Corys will eat food that drops to the bottom but are not algae eaters, although they do enjoy veggie wafers occasionally.
Otos especially enjoy brown algae.
carol

sirdarksol

Cories do not specifically eat algae (or rather, they don't polish it off of things like suckermouth cats do), though they do aid in limiting the amount of algae that can grow by eating extra food in the water.

Good small algae eaters are otocinclus catfish, also known as otos. I've heard that true Siamese Algae Eaters are also good. Otos, at least, and I believe SAEs too, require very stable water parameters, or they will be very unhappy. Other than that, they need constant food. If your tank runs out of algae, you're going to have to supplement their feeding.

tony

Wow, thank you all very much, thats the fastest reply I've ever gotten (like 5 min.) There are also some tetras, danios, cherry barbs and a rainbow shark in the tank. About how many otos would i need in my tank (20 gal.) to keep it free of algae? My tank also has quite a few plants and logs and rocks and such that also have algae growing on them, so that means even more algae for the otos.

Gunnie

Thanks guys! I knew I forgot to mention something! Just call me the resident twirly!

jsalemi

One oto would do the trick, but they do like company, so you should get 2 or 3.

Barbrella

One Bristle nosed pleco would clean up all your algae very quickly!

0morrokh

Heh 4 of us posted at the same time! (and all said about the same thing...well you know what they say, great minds think alike lol)

I don't know much about rainbow sharks but most sharks get big and aggressive, so I'm guessing one would get too big for a 20.

Get at least 3 Otos cause they like to shoal. A larger group would look really cool, if you have room for one.

You probably can't fit tetras, danios and cherry barbs all into a 20, since they all need to be kept in shoals of 6 or more. Assuming you mean zebra or leopard danios (giant danios get too big), you could have two shoals of the above fish (tets/danios/barbs) plus a small group of Otos.

tony

The rainbow sharks top out at about 6 inches, and really aren't very aggressive (they're considered semi-aggressive) mine is shy and stays in his little cave all the time

0morrokh

Ah ok, I didn't really know. Since you want an inch per gallon of fish, you could only have the shark, one shoal of small fish (tets or barbs or danios) and the otos.

COBettaCouple

a pair of otos would be happy in that tank and do a pretty good job on the algae. If you have the space, 3 would be better. The more of them that you have, the more fun they are to watch.