Corys or Otos?

I'm not sure what to get. I only have slight algae growth at the moment, but with the tank close to a window I know I will get some.

My tank is 30 gallon, currently with 2 female guppies and 3 cardinal tetras. we're going to get 2-3 more tetras (cardinal or neon, no sure yet) and probably 2 more female guppies. What do I have room for and what are easier to care for?

 

For algae, definitely get Otos. Corys are great little fish and are excellent for cleaning up the excess food that falls to the bottom of the tank, but they do not seem to eat algae (at least mine don't). Otos, on the other hand, are pretty much strictly algae eaters and do an excellent job of taking a huge bite out tank algae (pun intended).

I use both corys and Otos to make a pretty efficient little cleaning crew in two of my tanks.

Otos seem to be a bit more fragile than Corys, though.

 

I have both in my tank, and Sick-Lid has it exactly right. The cory's are great bottom cleaners, and the oto's are great algae eaters. I have 8 oto's and 3 cory's in a 46 gallon bowfront, and it seems to be a good number.

 

yea.. with a 30 gallon you could probably get 4-6 otos and let them 'graze', supplementing their diet with algae wafers whenever there isn't algae for them to clean off.

 

Corys do eat algae, but they aren't equipped to scrape algae the way otos and plecos can.

A combination is good, one to pick up excess food and other detritus (bits from live plants, that sort of thing), the other to clean the walls/deco in the tank. If you can only have one, and want something useful, go with otos. Since you should be vacuuming when you do water changes, you're doing the Cory's job anyway. However, Corys are really cool, and you can always just add scraping the walls of the tank to your cleaning schedule.

 

Get both corys and ottos. ottos for your algae and corys for the bottom excess food

 

The cory's are great bottom cleaners, and the oto's are great algae eaters. I have 8 oto's and 3 cory's in a 46 gallon bowfront, and it seems to be a good number.

... and I just added 3 clown loaches, to take care of the snails. They're really shy, and hid for the first week, but now they're out, and the snail population is dropping rapidly. ;D

 

The cory's are great bottom cleaners, and the oto's are great algae eaters. I have 8 oto's and 3 cory's in a 46 gallon bowfront, and it seems to be a good number.

... and I just added 3 clown loaches, to take care of the snails. They're really shy, and hid for the first week, but now they're out, and the snail population is dropping rapidly. ;D

fresh escargo! :;jk

 

oooo, could you give us some of your snails? We're actually... breeding them in a separate tank for our puffers. Don't ask... :

 

armadillo, I think its a bit too late...lol. I haven't seen a snail in a couple days... I see it's definitly true loaches like snails. I assume puffers like them too?

 

Yep, puffers love them. I didn't know about the loaches. We have a tank with puffers and loaches. It's a no go zone for snails I think!

 

if you get corys julis true julis rock for ottos I like the zebra (or cocama)otto

 

If you get corys, bear in mind that some grow reasonably large. If you want to stay on the small size, go for pandas (corys, not bears, LOL).

 

I'd like a panda bear! the orange laser corys are HIGH on our list of fish to get, but I think they get bigger than average for corys.

 

And probably not that easy to get a hold of, right? I understand not every LFS has them.

 

And probably not that easy to get a hold of, right? I understand not every LFS has them.

yea, they're not easy to find. :'(

 

julis are small only like 2 inches max