Stupid question for the day! Bottom feeders....

Hey folks,

Quick question...

I love loaches and catfish, and tend to go a bit nutty over them when they are in the shops....

What I want to know, which may seem like an obvious question, but can you have too many bottom feeders??

Like I've heard that there is an equation to work out the rough capacity of a tank in terms of fish, but is there any rule that says all these fish can or cannot be bottomfeeders?? Supposing a tank will hold 50 fish, obviously, the tank may look out of balance in terms of viewing, but is it a problem if all 50 are bottomfeeders?

Thanks for your help,
Big G!

 

Big G, I think the concern with having many bottom feeders is if they will all get enough food so if this is the type of fish you want you need to ensure that you feed sinking tablets/pellets etc for them. The other concern might be aggression and you will need to research each species to know what their compatibility is. The type of gravel and tank layout is also important...

 

Hey Dolphin! Thanks for the reply!

What you say makes perfect sense I guess, as the title suggests, it was the stupid question for the day!

I haven't had any problems with my bottom feeders other than the skunk botia! I'm still waiting to move this to another more suitable tank! The thing is a swine! Everytime I try to catch it, it dissapears into all the scenery! Every other fish will happily swim into the net, but just not the Skunk!

These are the bottom feeders I currently have...
Zebra Botia = 5
Skunk Botia = 1 (Soon to leave if I can just catch the swine!)
Pakistani Botia = 2
Black Zebra = 2 (haven't been able to find out exactly what these are, but they where sold as Black Zebra Botia)
Khuli Loach = 1 (Originally had 4 together, but only one left! haven't seen any good ones to replace yet)
Panther Loach = 1 (sold as a weather loach)
Horseface Loach = 2
Banjo Cats = 2 (love these doods! Don't see em often, but they love frozen foods!)
So thats a total of 16, but then there are the sucker types as well....

Chinese algea eater = 1 (spends most time tussling with the skunk!)
Chinese Hillstream Loach = 2 (Sold as butterfly Plecos)
Otocinclus = 3 ( have had 10 in total, but not all at once, but they can be very hard to acclimatise)

Which brings the total to 22 bottom feeders! Nice!

They all have their own little patches that they hide around, so I've had no probs with them treading on each other (with exception to the skunk!).

Anyhow I'm rambling now!
Cheers!
Big G!

 

I would get rid of the chinese algae eater the do become aggressive as they get older, likewise the skunk loach which maybe why you want to remove it.
There are quite a few loaches that are aggressive so be careful. Khulies, Zebras, Panthers (weather loach types), and horsefaces are OK as far as I know, but because a fish is named like a peaceful type may not mean it is. I saw Black zebras for the first time the other day. Generally it is the Botia types that you should check out first, they can be territorial. Make sure they have enough hiding places - I guess that's actually the answer to your question, as long as you have the right spieces and enough places for them to hide you can have alot of bottom feeders in a tank. :smile1:

 

Cheers City!

I have finally gotten rid of the skunk! Took nearly an hour to catch the swine but I finally succeeded! Next step will be to remove the Algea eater, then shortly followed by the larger of my Pakistani Loaches (nearly 6 inches and possibly responsible for eating my neons?) and then the last one to go will be the Snakeskin Gourami.... He's been getting bullied by just about everythiing from Neons to Zebras! His fins look a right mess!

Anyhow! Cheers!

Big G!