Lennie

no those are CAE (chinese algae eater) mine are SAE (Siamese Algae eater) aka Crossocheilus Siamensis Flying fox are called Epalzeorhynchos kalopterum CAEs are very territorial and Flying fox are known to be somehwhat territorial and not great algae eaters. My SAES are peaceful in general, except a few chases now and then

@AtomicSunfish thanks. Ive heard conflicting info about their similar looking fish aggression If I remember correctly @Ninjoma has denisoniis, rainbow shark and SAEs. Can you please share you experience if you keep them together?

Hey, I love my SAEs and their behavior in the tank. Their way of swimming and behavior is interesting to watch for me. Also I find them very useful if not the best algae eaters to this day as my main problem is usually green hair algae. Anyway, long story short, I wanted to get myself an albino rainbow shark for the past year or so. I had to get new juvenile SAE for another tank today so I visited my LFS, and during my visit, I saw this cute baby albino r.shark. Well I felt bonded with it and its fat tiny belly looked so cute, I had to get it. So it came home with me 🙂 I did watch videos and did readings on them in the past many times, but Id love to hear some personal experiences and tips for their best care!

Island scape where the island is in the middle seems like your best bet to me Like these

I would not add ton of buffers and lean towards creating a stable parameters all the time but instead lean towards the fish that are suitable for my tank You add Equilibrium to reach that gh reading I guess? If so, I would lean towards acidic and soft water fish instead of platies Gradually turn your stocking into a this type of fish so you wont have to deal with preparing water all the time and buying so many products. Hobby may feel tiring if you need to do ton of work rather than spending such time to sit and watch the tank

Not exactly true. Aquaculture engineer friend of mine who is also looong time hobbyist told me such high content of tannins is bad for some fish if they are naturally not adapted for them when I wanted to try my guppies in a blackwater setup. It irritates them and makes them open to skin related diseases if I remember correctly.

Not all wood are suitable for use with all animals. Also even the suitable woods should be completely dry before use to my knowledge. I didnt mean boiling for sterilising/tannins but more like if the woods you use were ok to use in an aquarium or if they are ok, then if they were ready and dry to be used so

I’ve had Hillstreams for some years, mostly because I love their funny little selves. They do eat some algae but not enough to matter. I’ve never had any escape. They’ve even bred and the babies are amazingly cute. Wait I didnt say that 😄 It does not even exist in my message how did you quote me like that im confused. Because I dont think they are excellent algae eaters by any means, not even good at all! 😄

Me neither. Unless I suspect about something. I think it wouldn't hurt to see these three numbers and make sure the water is ok even if it looks blurry a bit. You seem to have more wood pieces in your other topic. Were they dry and suitable for the tank use?

Im not sure if it is only tannins in your case. The water looks a bit green and blurry. It can also be a beginning of the green water maybe? Also do you test your ammonia nitrite and nitrate?

Amanos do escape if they want. One of mine did escape from my shallow tank. I have 2 other for almost 2 years in my 125 liter tank but they don't escape there. Amanos don't like small sized tanks I think, but 20H should hand a couple if you wanna keep them, but make sure to play safe and hav a lid. I haven't seen neocaridinas do it, unless there is a factor that forces them to jump, like aggressive fish chasing them down suddenly. I tried keeping neocaridinas with my apisto erythrura trio and it failed while no issues with other dwarf cichlids Hers snack on dead algae leftovers from what I remember. I wouldn't call them a good algae eater by any means. @beastie kept them. I kept borneo loaches which are pretty similar. She also has panda garras as "algae eater" too. I personally have/had all sort of pest snails, normal (olives and zebras) and horned nerites(black-yellow one), mystery snail, rabbit snail and viviparus viviparus; borneo loaches, SAEs, twig catfish, otos, amanos and cherry shrimp and so many bn plecos. All are great to keep and adds character to a tank. In terms of algae eating, don't expect much from any of them. SAEs for hairy type of algaes are the best fish ever in my opinion to keep it at bay. And otos are great for brown diatom. I wouldn't call any other an effective algae eater in my experience. And SAEs are too big and active for a 20G, and brown diatom is commonly only an early tank stage phase that goes away most of the time instead of being a chronic problem.

otos and nerites are the only real algae eaters in this list. Others snack on some algae but that's basically it. Even otos at home tank will require additional feeding.Don't expect too much of an algae eating behavior from any fish or snail really. Also every fish or snail can eat some sort of algae. What's your issue? Otos are crazy good for brown diatom but that is just a phase almost all the time for a new tank. That's pretty much it. Otherwise, as a person who kept and still keeping all of those, I wanna say don't have high expectations and keep the one you like the most. If a bn eats 1X algae, it poops 10x lol.

I would personally go for a lake malawi /african cichlid tank like the one below if I had that size

Do 1 million malaysian trumpet snails count?

Well, Rebecca has a video on them. She studies evolution of loricariidae as her PhD and is an ichthyologist/biologist. She is also in the hobby and owns so many different plecos and not only study them but also keep them and has lots of experience. It is very common for us to see these hypancistrus being labeled as more like a carnivore, but she says scientific papers doesn't say so. You can check her video on hypancistrus here. She talks about their diet in the beggining I personally rather base my Hypancistrus's diet based on the recommendation of a person who studies them academically and has so many different plecos as a hobbyist. Up to you. Even sites like planetcatfish may suggest carnivore heavy diet

I would add neons first, gourami second, pygmys last. Pygmys are shy and in my experience, honey gouramis want fish around or feel stressed, so they will want that activity going around them.

There is an important issue with killifish and their nature I think we should mention. They live pretty short. And as long as one is not buying eggs or breeding themselves for the next gens, they already complete a lot of their lifespan until they are sold in a store before you buy them. Based on the species, they will either live one or two years with you max, and when you get one, very likely the one you get is already old enough to be likely live much less than that. I think that can be good for someone who likes to try many species or interested in the work, time and effort it takes to breed them for generations; but it is pretty bad for me as I like to spend the longest time possible with my fish and not deal with keeping eggs in the soil hatching next gens and putting such effort. They surely look beautiful, but if a person has only one tank at home, maybe have some kids who will also emotionally bound with the fish or them themselves, then such species are no good IMO.

You cant sustain 6 otos in a 5g tank. These guys need to feed all the time to keep their gut bacteria alive, otherwise once they lose it, it is a ticking bomb that they die even if they eat after. If you have a bigger tank, move otos there

If you safely move established filter, it should be mostly fine. But moving wood is not enough, bacteria lives on the surface so moving water doesnt make much sense other than keeping the parameters same, and the top of sand where it meets the water usually home nitrification bacteria and when you move it to another tank you will whether intentionally or unintentionally mess it up, so I wouldn't count myself preserving the bacteria on the surface exactly making it to the next tank without any damage. You need to cycle again if you ask me. Just these objects you move will introduce some live bacteria but that's it. You won't transfer your cycle. You will mainly lose your cycle by the time your reset your filter. IF you preserve and move filter media safely then you are probably okay

Shared my comments with bold&orange above You can also consider ember tetras for your tank size. And one amano shrimp if you don't want any breeding going on. And based on your stocking, a snail, too. Snails are full of characters! Ive never kept any neons so didnt comment on those. You can always try to find healthier bettas. There are wild but tankbred species that look amazing. Check them out! Like imbellis, rubra, smaragdina, mahachai...

Btw, if you are interested in plecos, check Rebecca’s yt channel sometime. She studies the evolution of loriicaridae as her PhD, and is a biologist/ichthyologist. She is also in the hobby too, and even worked at fish store for 6 years before

"Aquatic seeds" are basically a failure in the hobby in general. I would suggest making a research about what you have used. Internet is full of failures when it comes to that. I have seen tanks crashing and all plants dying especially after filling the tank, but nothing that looks great and working long term to this day once planted this way. Probably mold or something? Sad to say, but you may need to reset the tank and setup from zero

They are not shy like plecos, in my experience at least. That is a biiig advantage imo Also these guys like to spend time at everywhere in the tank jumping around plant leaves and climbing woods etc. Plecos usually hide and stay only around the bottom level.

Female bristlenose plecos tend to be out more. Adult males can just claim a cave and spend time inside/nearby. But some people have issues bn plecos eating their echinodorus plants tho. 2-3 plants of yours look like an echinodorus type, but Im not sure. I highly recommend whiptails instead of plecos. A group of farlowellas would look great there You can check whiptails in general. Royal farlowellas look awesome but I havent kept any yet. I only kept red lizard whiptails and twig catfish.

A group of SAEs. They are the best IMO. You can mechanically try to remove all you see and introduce a group of like 4 saes and see how it goes. Meanwhile try to correct whats causing the algae too Isnt it dangerous to keep raphaels catfish with small sized fish like cories kuhlis or tetras?