Which pleco for a betta community tank?

[apschizo]

Okay... so I have a 22gallon heavily planted and layered community betta tank. 1 male betta, 5 female, 2 Cory, 3 neon tetra, and 4 Green tetras, with cherry shrimp, micro Thai crabs, and a fully functional ecosystem, but algae is a problem (too much sunlight, I'm aware). I am planning on upgrading to a much larger tank, but it's a process, anyway, I want to get a pleco.
However, I've been struggling to find one in general and am curious if there is a specific kind that would work best for my grouping. And yes I'm aware what I'm doing with my bettas is weird and typically not functional, but these guys are, and all are on the more peaceful side temperament wise.
So any suggestions on a pleco are welcome!

 

[pkr210]

Okay... so I have a 22gallon heavily planted and layered community betta tank. 1 male betta, 5 female, 2 Cory, 3 neon tetra, and 4 Green tetras, with cherry shrimp, micro Thai crabs, and a fully functional ecosystem, but algae is a problem (too much sunlight, I'm aware). I am planning on upgrading to a much larger tank, but it's a process, anyway, I want to get a pleco.
However, I've been struggling to find one in general and am curious if there is a specific kind that would work best for my grouping. And yes I'm aware what I'm doing with my bettas is weird and typically not functional, but these guys are, and all are on the more peaceful side temperament wise.
So any suggestions on a pleco are welcome!

Looking how your tank is set up from one side, it looks too cramped to fit a pleco even a dwarf pleco. In my opinion its too tight and with the stocking its at its limit.

 

[JuiceKong]

I second what ^^^ said. Plus, plecos have big bioloads so you would really be pushing this tank to its limits. I would wait until you upgrade to a larger setup. And good luck with this betta setup, glad it's working.

 

[AvaS]

In my personal experience the pleco completly devoured all my plants within an inch of their life, and wasn’t the best at actually cleaning up the algae issue, so I traded it for a Siamese reticulated flying fox, so far it’s doing a much better job. Also as previous poster said, plecos are very messy and have high bio loads. I don’t think I would every have one again or recommend them for algae eating duties.

 

[Noroomforshoe]

Adding another fish is just going to add more waste and then more algae. I think that the algae is part of your echo system , let it be, and use a magnetic algae scraper on the front of the glass if it bothers you.

 

[FishDin]

A nerite snail would help and not reproduce. Rams horn snails would as well, but they do reproduce a lot when there is so much food for them.

 

[DaniosForever]

A good algae eater that has low bioload are the otos but they only eat algae so make sure your algae wafers are mostly plant based

 

[Linda1234]

The thing about panda gara or otto is they need ot be in groups - at least 6 of either; snails can be as many or few you want.

 

[DaniosForever]

with cherry shrimp

Cherry shrimp are algae eaters

 

[apschizo]

Looking how your tank is set up from one side, it looks too cramped to fit a pleco even a dwarf pleco. In my opinion its too tight and with the stocking its at its limit.

There is a fair amount of open space, though for peacekeeping purposes I have a lot of sight line breaks. There is also a massive rock cave that has 4 entrances and very low light moss and grass with a sand substrate. As far as stocking limit, most likely yes. The tetras are a problem no matter what way I look at it.

Cherry shrimp are algae eaters

Due to the "peaceful" tetras the shrimp aren't swimming around as much and sticking to the plants, rocks, and driftwood.

In my personal experience the pleco completly devoured all my plants within an inch of their life, and wasn’t the best at actually cleaning up the algae issue, so I traded it for a Siamese reticulated flying fox, so far it’s doing a much better job. Also as previous poster said, plecos are very messy and have high bio loads. I don’t think I would every have one again or recommend them for algae eating duties.

I've never had an issue with them, but I definitely see where it could happen. They've been my go to for years and I would just trade them out once they reached a certain size, but thought since I'm planning for this community to eventually be in a massive aquarium it would be a decent addition. I have never looked into other types of algae eaters, though I faintly remember having a siamese catfish at one point growing up.

Adding another fish is just going to add more waste and then more algae. I think that the algae is part of your echo system , let it be, and use a magnetic algae scraper on

A nerite snail would help and not reproduce. Rams horn snails would as well, but they do reproduce a lot when there is so much food for them

the front of the glass if it bothers you.

Its not that it bothers me so much as I know it can choke out my other plants if I don't get it under control. I've considered the scrapper just have heard a lot of negative reviews of it.

As far as snails go, they are in there... had one show up with a set of plants, knew what was coming and now I've found at least 20... I really really don't like snails.

A good algae eater that has low bioload are the otos but they only eat algae so make sure your algae wafers are mostly plant based

I'll have to look into otos. I don't believe I've had or heard of them. Special diets aren't an issue.

 

[pkr210]

There is a fair amount of open space, though for peacekeeping purposes I have a lot of sight line breaks. There is also a massive rock cave that has 4 entrances and very low light moss and grass with a sand substrate. As far as stocking limit, most likely yes. The tetras are a problem no matter what way I look at it.

Due to the "peaceful" tetras the shrimp aren't swimming around as much and sticking to the plants, rocks, and driftwood.

I've never had an issue with them, but I definitely see where it could happen. They've been my go to for years and I would just trade them out once they reached a certain size, but thought since I'm planning for this community to eventually be in a massive aquarium it would be a decent addition. I have never looked into other types of algae eaters, though I faintly remember having a siamese catfish at one point growing up.

Its not that it bothers me so much as I know it can choke out my other plants if I don't get it under control. I've considered the scrapper just have heard a lot of negative reviews of it.

As far as snails go, they are in there... had one show up with a set of plants, knew what was coming and now I've found at least 20... I really really don't like snails.

I'll have to look into otos. I don't believe I've had or heard of them. Special diets aren't an issue.

Still with the stocking and heavily planted a pleco isn't your best option. I recommend to just wait and when you get a bigger tank, fix the stocking and then see if a pleco will do well.

 

[FishDin]

As far as snails go, they are in there... had one show up with a set of plants, knew what was coming and now I've found at least 20... I really really don't like snails.

Probably Bladder snails. They won't do much. The ones I mentioned will help, but if you don't want snails...

Of course the obvioius thing to do would be to decrease the light, as you have mentioned that there is too much. Without reducing the light, you may have a constant algae battle on your hands.