Are bottom feeders necessary?

[dweebikus]

Just wondering how important bottom feeders are to a tank. I've realized that both of my tanks are primarilly normal fish, and algae eaters (or algae eating shrimp). Should I consider bottom feeders at all for any good reason?

[A Hill]

what fish do you have.... normal fish means nothing as far as i know.....

- fish newb -

[bigstick120]

They will enhabit the lower portion of the tank, eat food that top or mid level fish miss and there are some really cool bottom species! The idea is you have fish at all levels of the tank, just makes the tank a little more interesting to me.

[dweebikus]

In my 10g I've got 3 guppies, 3 harlequin ras, 2 ottos, a small sae, 3 amanos and a silently growing colony of cherry shrimp.

In my 50g I've got 3 serape tetra, 2 angels, 2 gold rams, 3 bolivian rams, 6 gold white cloud minnows, 3 sae, 5 ottos

[fshfanatic]

Get some Cory's. They are very active, wont bug any fish and do a great job of cleaning up..

[A Hill]

Originally Posted by dweebikus

In my 10g I've got 3 guppies, 3 harlequin ras, 2 ottos, a small sae, 3 amanos and a silently growing colony of cherry shrimp.

for this tank i would look into dwarf corries. great little funny fish

Originally Posted by dweebikus

In my 50g I've got 3 serape tetra, 2 angels, 2 gold rams, 3 bolivian rams, 6 gold white cloud minnows, 3 sae, 5 ottos

look into a good sized group 4-6 they will love the tank. juili are my favorite... just parted with a trio

believe me you will enjoy corries!

i would also consider the rams a lower strata fish..

- fish newb -

[dweebikus]

My point of the question is more, do i benefit at all from having them other than aesthetic purposes, and is the benefit worth the extra fish load?

[crazie.eddie]

In your 50 gallon tank, you don't have much of a fish load. Most of your fish are upper/middle dwelling fish. So I would assume there would be some left over food at the bottom. The angels are probably the only ones that may look for food on the bottom, but not often. Corries would be best for this tank, since they actively look for food.

In your 10 gallon tank, you don't really need anything else. The shrimps should take care of left over food.

[dweebikus]

Really? I thought my fish load was kind of high, max size for most of the fish puts me at about 65" of fish.

[crazie.eddie]

Although you have mostly upper/mid dwellers, the fish you have will not really bumping into each other to cause overcrowding. As long as a balance tank (upper/middle/bottom dwellers), good filtration, and maintenance you should be fine.

[esarkipato]

do i benefit at all from having them other than aesthetic purposes, and is the benefit worth the extra fish load?

Yes it is extra fish load. But isn't extra nitrates (especially in planted tanks) from a higher load better than extra ammonia from uneaten, decomposing food?

The point is, cories are terrific scavengers. They are always digging around, looking for the tiniest morsel. It's kinda fun to watch, too

[dweebikus]

Cool, thanks everyone for the input. I think I'm convinced to pick up some scavengers, as long as the local store has some julliis. Would 6 be just about right?

[esarkipato]

For which tank? 6 is great for the 50g.

[dweebikus]

For the 50, i don't plan on adding anything to the 10.

If anything in the 10 I'm waiting for my gourami to grow old and give up the ghost so I can add more shrimp and not worry about him tormenting them.