Clean Up Crew Advice

[Hippoherder]

I'm starting up an aquaponic system using ornamental fish. I'm leaning toward a rainbow tank-not as easy to maintain a bio load as guppies, but not too difficult to breed either.

I'd like a bottom dweller that is efficient on clean up and might put out a higher amount of waste, as well as get on with rainbows. Smaller would be better. Starter tanks are 90 gallon ( not including grow beds).

I'm thinking a nice group of cories. Most plexus get too large, I think... Except for bristle nose perhaps.

I'd also like one that, if they are lucky enough to breed, that I can easily find homes for the extra offspring. So a species that others may want.

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

[ckmullin]

If you want poop get goldfish however they are not the bottom dweller your after. Google goldfish and aquaponics they go hand in hand. Don't thing of what fish would look nice in the setup but rather this what fish would suit the setup for it to be successful.

[Hippoherder]

I do know about goldfish. I just want to practice on a small ornamental setup before going with tilapia in a larger one. I like rainbows, I don't really care for goldfish. I just need a good bottom dweller.

[Rainbowric]

I believe you thoughts are correct .... Cories & BN ... I don't understand why you must use goldfish and why you can't go with a fish that you would like to look at! I run the long finned BN .. Silver tip and albino with cories in all my grow out tanks and they do a great job in keeping the bottom of my tanks clean, and if you don't overfeed young rainbowfish you will be keeping them forever before they are large enough to sell. I do have a few Sailfin Plecos as well but if your tank gets really dirty they can grow quite fast. But in my show tanks they do not grow that fast. However with either of these choices for clean up, if your bows are throwing eggs it will be hard to find them. In addition the BN is not difficult to breed.

[Hippoherder]

I believe you thoughts are correct .... Cories & BN ... I don't understand why you must use goldfish and why you can't go with a fish that you would like to look at! I run the long finned BN .. Silver tip and albino with cories in all my grow out tanks and they do a great job in keeping the bottom of my tanks clean, and if you don't overfeed young rainbowfish you will be keeping them forever before they are large enough to sell. I do have a few Sailfin Plecos as well but if your tank gets really dirty they can grow quite fast. But in my show tanks they do not grow that fast. However with either of these choices for clean up, if your bows are throwing eggs it will be hard to find them. In addition the BN is not difficult to breed.

Thanks Rick. The suggestion regarding the goldfish has to do with the amount of waste they produce. Aquaponics depends on fish waste to feed the plants in the grow beds. Depending on the type of plant you are trying to grow, you may need more waste production to be successful. So lettuce and herbs will run well off nearly anything, where tomatoes will require a mature system with significant fish waste production. Goldfish and tilapia are ideal.

It can be done with other fish. You just need to keep the bio load up. Rainbows aren't as easy as livebearers to keep the fish population up, but with a dedicated breeding tank, it shouldn't be too difficult (based on my Gertrude and Praecox experience anyways).

So I basically need a bow-friendly bottom feeder that doesn't get huge breeds well, and poops a lot lol. It's looking like cories and bn.

Thanks again. Looking forward to seeing your tanks.

[cjerrom]

The best Plecos are the Panaque family so you will have to have wood available - get some juvenile L330, 191, 190 or L27 panaques - they are elephants for the amount of poop they produce! They should cost around 10-30.00 at best and when they get larger (which takes 4-5 yrs) you can sell them as they are still desirable fish. They are pin striped as juvies and quite attractive.

[Gillyan]

I think you're on the right track- cjerrom is right about the Panaques but you may need several a sthey are not so diligent in cleaning. BN's are diligent cleaners- poop a lot if you have a colony which isn't hard as they'll reproduce so easily, maybe try albinos-add a different coloring to your tank also people really like those ones-easy to sell especially as adults and longfinned also as suggested. You'l need a few if you want a lot of poop though.

My experience for the poopiest pleco is the Pterygoplichthys scrophus or the Rhino/Chocolate pleco, do a much better job at cleaning than panaques about even with the Bn's if you have a colony and poop like crazy(definelty the King's of poop) but they spend all night basically buffing your tank clean-they can grow big, but if you get a male not so large(maybe 8 inches max).

With all these you'll need wood, with Bn's you'll need to feed them veggies almost every other day and with Panaquaes supplement with veggies and a meaty diet- blood worms/sometimes brine shrimp also. With the Rhino- no supplement required will eat any waste food not specific on what they're fed.

[Hippoherder]

I like the pleco ideas. I was reading up on the Panaques, and I read that they can't have too much in the way of protein as it will cause digestive troubles and I am sure there will be protein intensive times for the rainbows. I will read up on the rhino plecos. An army if bn plecos is an idea if all else fails. The additional water volume and filtration from the grow beds will be several times more than the initial 90 gallons. Although it would be nice to have something a bit easier to find homes for any extra offspring than bn.

[Gillyan]

This is true.

Not too much protein, but nonetheless will need some,they can be a little bit more diff. to keep than say the Bn or the Rhino. I keep mine with Bn's and they all love the veggies- but my Panaques need some brine shrimp/little bits of freezedried blood worm. About once a once every two weeks but they also spawn- so that might the reason for the need for extra protein- I love my little clowns but they do not do so much house cleaning definitely not as much as the Bn's or the Rhino.

Good point about the protein though- research about any clean up crew is super important.

[Hippoherder]

This may be counter intuitive, but what about pygmy cories? 20 pygmies and 8 or so praecox or blue eyes sounds like it may be a start. They are easy to breed if I need more and can adjust the population and filtration as needed.

[Gillyan]

Actually I like that idea...even though I should be biased to plecos being a pleco person-lol-but as they require a meatier diet and graze plants and decor for food may be an option to try definitely-plus they are a nice fish. Several diff. varieties, relativeky easy to acer for from what I know of- true with the breeding, I have no experience personally but know a few fish friends who have and they enjoy them a lot.

To add to this idea I wonder if if you have thought about a combo of maybe a pleco group or one pleco-algae diff types, brown, green, some extra food debry,etc. depending on the pleco and a small cory shoal-to clean up food debry?

I have a friend who has Bn's with cories and some tetras and has tank with one Rhino with cories also and some other fish not sure what: both are the most immacualte tanks and have live plants- sparkling! No algae, stable water parameters, has softer water than I do but has to do far less water changes than I do, and his tanks are smaller with a bigger bio load than mine-interesting!

[DivineHammer]

BN plecos, are great for tank cleaners, and are cool, easy to breed, my Albino/ dwarf cross just breed for me. I love my Rhino pleco he's just big and awesome, sailfins as stated grow slower than commons, I keep 12 commons plecos 2 being albino, 20 BN plecos, 5 Gold spotted Sailfins, 1 Leopard Frog, 1 Clown. as stated doesn't mater what type of Pleco you decide to put in your system, but you will need a piece of driftwood for them.