Other Options Rather then a Pleco

Hello, I have a 112 gallon aquarium and it presently houses community fish with 2 plecos (6" and 5") and I was just wondering if there would be any other fish that would be a good algae cleaner and food cleaner that won't grow very big and destroy all my plants. I was thinking cory's what would they school more then they work? Well fell free to post suggestions thanks.

 

Cories are not exactly what you would call an algae eater, you could go with a small school of oto cats. What else do you have in the tank?
Tom

 

The other fish I have in the tank are a big school of 12 angels, 8 zebra dinos, 8 rummy nose tetras, 12 dwarf gouramis, 6 bala sharks and a few more others. I also that that otos would be good but around how amny would I get?

 

No less than 3. They like company of their own kind.

 

You are pushing the limit of your tank now even without the plecos considering the bala sharks get to be very large too, and you said there were a few others beside the one's you listed. Also depending on which angle fish you have that can take a good deal of you space too considering you have 12 of them. They all may be small now but that won't last long. In the next year or so you will need other homes for some of those fish. In any event, with that in mind, Cory cats as Tom mentioned don't eat algae much. They will nibble here and there and maybe take a few chunks but not enough for you to notice. However, they are great at cleaning up every last drop of food that hits the tank floor. Oto's on the other hand are algae eaters and do a great job of it, but they might turn their nose at some of the left over food. So your best cleanup crew would be a combo of both. Even if you got 3 of each their total adult size would only be around 12"-15" (depends on the cory's you buy as they range from 2"-3" in size, but the oto's get to 2" max).

 

with an overcrowding issue, if there is a good balance in where the fish spend most of their time. top middle or bottom can you push the inch per gallon rule a little?

 

I would highly recommend ottos, they clean algae like crazy, even cleaning plant leaves. My tank walls, gravel, decorations, even the filter and heater are all crystal clean! The other day I saw one sitting on the back of one of my african dwarf frogs! Totally peacful, cute, small, hard workers. They are very small so would add very little in terms of bio load, and only get to about 2 inches.

--R

 

Another vote for the otos. I haven't noticed that my two are bothered by not being in a bigger group, and haven't seen anywhere that they require a larger group, but I'm not an expert on them. They are amazing, and they don't eat plants. It took two otos two days to start making an obvious difference in the amount of algae on the walls. They're also fast little buggers, and good at avoiding getting caught by bigger fish (though you probably don't want to count on this. I only know it because Miyamoto tried to catch the otos while they were getting used to each other and they could easily dodge him.