Large cleaner catfish in an aquarium. cleaner fish and whales. How to properly clean an aquarium

Algae growth in an aquarium can be a serious problem, especially if the growth takes on a neglected appearance. Aquarium cleaner fish can cope with many types of algae, but even they are not able to cope with particularly advanced cases.

Honestly, not even the most hardworking cleaner fish can replace a scraper. Fish can significantly make your work easier, of course, with a certain number of them and hard work.

It is also very important to understand that fish clean algae only when they are either young or hungry. Young fish grow, and for optimal growth they need to actively feed, in this case this is very good for us, since aquarium cleaners feed on algae and growths.

An adult hungry fish can also actively clean the aquarium, but this does not happen so often. Most likely, some large and lazy pterygoplicht will wait for its next feeding. Not feeding the fish is also not an option - you can starve them to death, which happens especially often with ancistrus.

Popular aquarium cleaner fish

Pterygoplichthus

- one of the most popular large aquarium fish, not only among those who are trying to actively fight algae in the aquarium. The main limitation on its content is the volume of the aquarium, preferably from 150 liters. While the fish is not yet large, it is quite hardworking and is very good at scraping not only the glass in the aquarium, but also decorations and stones. As the pteryg grows and matures, it becomes increasingly lazier, and at some point cleaning the aquarium will become a fairly infrequent process.

Ancistrus

Also very popular is the cleaner fish. Ancistrus are loved by aquarists due to the fact that they can live in almost any aquarium, starting from 20 liters. Of course, 20 liters is a limit, but still a very realistic option. Since the fish is not big, they can take in quantity. But on the other hand, we do not recommend keeping many individuals, especially males, in a limited volume, because conflicts are possible. In our opinion, this fish is more hardworking than Pterygoplichthus, but due to the characteristics of its sucker, it may not be as effective.

Crossocheilus

This fish is less popular in the world of aquarists, but no less valuable. It is believed that Crossocheilus is the best at cleaning the aquarium from flip flops and black beards. We even indicated this method as one of the options for how to get rid of black beard in an aquarium. Many people recommend planting several fish to achieve better results, but we do not recommend this, as in a confined space the fish can be very aggressive towards each other. Also, you need to understand that if the Vietnamese has already grown in the aquarium, then it will be almost impossible for the fish to destroy it all.

Cleaner fish are, of course, not a panacea. If you haven’t looked after your aquarium for a long time, haven’t cleaned the glass, and, having bought fish, decided that they will do all the dirty work for you, then we can assure you that this will not happen. Fish can only be auxiliary tools in terms of combating algae and growths at an early stage of their appearance, but you should not put everything on their shoulders.

Ancistrus, or, as it is popularly called, the sucker catfish, lives in the Amazon River, which is located in South America. These catfish are common aquarium fish.

They are popular not because of their appearance, but rather because of their original behavior. They move in leaps and bounds and, using a suction cup mouth, attach themselves to aquarium glass, rocks and plants.

Ancitruses have horn-shaped scrapers in their mouths, with which fish scrape off various educations from glass and underwater objects of the aquarium, thereby cleaning it. In nature, they live in stagnant bodies of water and fast-flowing rivers.

Description of Ancistrus

The body shape is teardrop-shaped. On top it is covered with a shell of keratinized plates.

Adult ancistrus in an aquarium grow up to 10 cm. The maximum body length depends on the temperature of the content, than it the higher the smaller sizes ancistrus.

In addition to the ordinary ancistrus, there is a veil form, distinctive feature which is a long tail and enlarged fins. As always, there are albinos. A star-shaped ancistrus with well-defined white dots on a dark body has also been bred.

As a rule, ancistrus are not kept alone; they are planted in groups of several individuals in an aquarium as cleaners. Keeping these catfish is quite easy. This peaceful fish, which get along well with almost all fish kept in tropical freshwater aquariums.

In an aquarium with catfish, suction cups maintain the temperature within 22-26 degrees. But they are able to withstand temperature fluctuations from 18 to 33 degrees. Catfish have adapted to live in aquariums with almost any water composition, although in natural conditions prefer slightly acidic water. Ancistrus love clean water with a high oxygen content, so intensive aeration is recommended.

Plants should grow quite densely in the aquarium. It is also necessary to arrange various shelters for ancistrus, in which catfish like to hide. It is desirable to have stones and snags that the ancistrus will happily scrape off.

Males exhibit territorial behavior and actively defend their favorite hiding places. Ancistrus activity peaks in the evening. They eat a variety of fouling from numerous surfaces in the aquarium. If there is not enough food, catfish can begin to spoil the plants, especially young shoots. They partially eat the leftover food left by other inhabitants of the aquarium.

If there is a group of catfish, or they live in small aquariums, the pets need additional feeding plant foods. As such food, they can be given cabbage or salad scalded with boiling water. You can also use ready-made food for herbivorous fish in tablet form.

Ancistrus breeding

Breeding these sucker catfish is quite simple. Males can be distinguished by the presence of horns on their heads - leathery processes. Females do not have such horns at all or they are poorly developed.

In addition, males have a more slender physique. Under favorable conditions, ancistrus lay eggs even in general aquariums, in secluded shelters. But it is practically impossible for fry to survive in a community aquarium. If the specific task is to breed ancistrus, then group or pair spawning is used.

If catfish are kept in a group, then there should be 2 males and 4-6 females. The aquarium is taken with a volume of more than 40 liters. There must be shelters in it. Bamboo or ceramic tubes work well for this purpose, but driftwood and rocks can also be placed in the aquarium.

The spawning process is stimulated by replacing one third of the water, lowering the temperature and increasing aeration. When the female is ready to spawn, she becomes fatter. If spawning does not occur, then they are fed with plant food directly in the spawning tank. Be sure to remove any leftover food as it will rot.

As a rule, spawning in Ancistrus occurs in the dark. The male chooses a place suitable for laying and cleans it thoroughly; his chosen one lays 40-200 eggs there. The masonry has the appearance of a bunch Pink colour. After spawning, the female should be removed from the spawning area, and the male should be left to guard the offspring. It will clean the eggs and create a flow of water.

The eggs mature in about a week, depending on the temperature of the water. During this time the catfish does not feed.

If the eggs were laid in a community aquarium, you can try to catch them. The eggs, along with the object on which they are attached, are transferred to a new aquarium. If the caviar is attached to the glass, they try to carefully separate it.

The larvae hatch and initially feed on the contents of the yolk sac. When the bags resolve and the larvae begin to swim around the aquarium, the male is removed. From this time on, the fry are given food. You can feed them with ready-made fry food. Tablets are good for catfish; you can also give them finely ground food or live dust.

The larvae are fed regularly 3 times a day. You will have to take good care of the cleanliness of the aquarium and replace a fifth of it every day. Under such conditions, the fry develop quickly. At 10 months, young individuals are already capable of producing offspring themselves.

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Those suffering from external enemies know very well where they will receive sanitation and swim to the places of sanitation in whole flocks. The fish expose the most affected areas of the body to the orderlies, and they, when treating ulcers and wounds, touch the patient’s body with their fins. The patient finds out where the cleaner is located and strives to create the most favorable working conditions for him, just as Forex brokers do for their clients. Dark unicorns even change their coloring to a lighter color so that orderlies can see their enemies better against a light background.

Although cleaners cannot earn money for their work, the benefits from such an alliance are mutual. Doctors receive all the food on the affected bodies, and the fish get rid of foci of disease and infection. In six hours of diligent work, a cleaner can serve more than three hundred patients. And stingrays and sharks even have to be processed on the move, since they cannot freeze in place.

Cleaners are almost never out of work, just like successful Forex traders. To attract a client, they perform a ritual dance that no fish can resist. She stands upright, like a parrot fish, or freezes head down, like a mullet, spreading her fins and opening her mouth, allowing the little orderlies to fearlessly examine the most inaccessible areas.

The beauty of an aquarium is largely determined by the cleanliness of its glass walls, the transparency of the water, and the shiny surface of the plant leaves. However, for beginners (and not only) a real misfortune can be the dominance of the aquarium by lower plants - algae. As a biological method of combating the increase of most types of algae, adding fish to the aquarium for which lower plants are natural food is used. Their mouthparts are adapted to scrape off fouling on stones, plants, and the walls of the aquarium.

Like other cleaner catfish from the chainmail family, nature equipped Otocinclus with a mouth special structure- in the form of a powerful suction cup. Rough inner surface mouth and powerful jaw muscles help him easily scrape algae from any surface.

The merits of this small, modest and slightly timid fish were highly appreciated by the “guru” of all aquarists, Takashi Amano. It is she who recommends placing it in a new aquarium with plants immediately upon startup, since outbreaks of an increase in the number of diatoms are very often observed there. If proper measures are not taken, all surfaces in the aquarium will soon be covered with a slimy brown-brown mass.

But otocinclus does not need better food - they selflessly eat diatoms from surfaces and do not disdain green algae. True, these sucker catfish have a peculiarity - they often choose plant leaves for food and avoid the walls of the aquarium.

Description of the fish and contents

Otocinclus are literally small representatives of the large and varied in size family of chainmails, their length rarely reaches more than 6 cm. They do not have a particularly remarkable coloring - a dark back and a light belly, transparent fins, an elongated body and, of course, they have a mustache - like a real catfish. Of the 20 species of otocinclus, aquarists are most fond of affinis, negros, macrospilus, arnoldi, and coma.

Cleaner catfish are nocturnal fish, prefer diffused light, daytime stay at the bottom, near shelters (you should worry about their arrangement in advance). We should not forget that otocinclus are animals; they need at least a minimum “company” of 5–7 individuals. Such a flock can keep a 100-liter aquarium clean.

Otocinclus are peaceful creatures; they can become good neighbors for and other peaceful small fish.

These aquarium orderlies love cleanliness, daily water changes of about a third, filtration and aeration - required condition for them. It is also necessary to monitor the level of nitrates (no more than 10.0 mg/l). Otherwise, the requirements for the conditions of keeping fish are not strict.

In a clean aquarium, cleaners are fed artificial food based on algae, scalded spinach, lettuce, and blanched zucchini.

Siamese algae eater

This is another small and at first glance inconspicuous fish, which is an implacable enemy of algae in the aquarium. Its peculiarity is the fact that the fish eats even those algae that are too tough for other cleaners, including the notorious “”, or, as it is also called, “black beard”.

Like otocinclus, does not damage ornamental plants in an aquarium, unlike other cleaner fish. The exception is that it is often a treat for adults.

It is worth noting that only young individuals of the Siamese algae eater actively eat algae. Adult fish often lose interest in them and switch to artificial or live food, especially when kept together with other types of fish.

Description of the fish and contents

This is a small, cute fish with a light body and longitudinal dark stripes on the sides. The stripes continue on the caudal fin and have a jagged pattern. This feature distinguishes them from their close relatives - the more aggressive false algae eaters, or Siamese flying foxes, which are also considered good cleaners.

The average size is about 7 cm, but adults under proper conditions can reach 15 cm. Despite their considerable size, Siamese algae eaters are absolutely non-confrontational and do not show aggression even towards small fish. An exception may be - like the main food competitors (only lazier), and fish with veil-shaped fins - Siamese simply bite them.

In nature, algae eaters live in streams and small rivers, so it is advisable to install a pump in the aquarium to create a flow familiar to the fish. Algae eaters are not picky about their conditions of detention, pure water neutral acidity or slightly acidified is the main condition for them.

Despite the fact that Siamese algae eaters stay near the bottom or in the middle layers of the aquarium, they are capable of jumping to considerable heights, which means that open aquariums are not suitable for them.

Siamese algae eaters are schooling fish, but they feel quite good with three or five of them. This amount is enough to maintain a 150-liter aquarium. A flock of lively Siamese greatly enlivens the leisurely aquarium life.

- an aquarium chain-mail catfish that is capable of cleaning growths from all surfaces of the aquarium. He is tireless in this activity. For a 200-300 liter aquarium, just a couple of individuals are enough to keep the algae levels to a minimum. One of the disadvantages of the fish is its gluttony - if there is a lack of nutrition, it can damage the delicate parts of ornamental plants.

Description of the fish and contents

Ancistrus has not only excellent cleaning qualities, but also a remarkable appearance. The most common is its simplest form, but there are also veil forms, albinos, and dark ancistrus are also popular.

In aquariums, ancistrus rarely grow more than 15cm, but due to its activity (mostly caused by nutritional needs), the fish need a fairly spacious aquarium with places for hiding.

From necessary conditions sufficient oxygen can be added powerful system filtration - ancistrus actively feed and produce a lot of waste. And one more thing - to fully digest food, they need lignin; the driftwood at the bottom of the aquarium will become its source for this catfish.

Ancistrus are fed artificial food with spirulina, vegetables, and they can be pampered with bloodworms as a treat.

This representative of the chain-mail catfish family is also called the brocade catfish. It has an extremely strong suction cup - a fish stuck to the wall of the aquarium is very difficult to tear off.

Description of the fish and contents

Glyptoperichthus has an interesting spotted “outfit” and a high dorsal wig in the shape of a sail. This cleaner catfish can reach significant sizes (up to 60 cm), and therefore it simply needs a volume of at least 200 liters.

The fish gets along well with any fish. The only neighbor that a Glyptoperichthus male will not tolerate is another male of the same kind; fights will constantly arise between them.

Otherwise, the conditions of keeping the brocade catfish do not differ from the conditions of keeping other sucker catfish. Like Ancistrus, Glyptoperichtha needs to gnaw snags for the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.