[koebwil]

I have a 35 gallon planted tank with a shoal of tiger barbs (16) in it and a ton of assassin snails. I have tried otos and they all got killed (aside from one who is living with my shrimp now), and I tried SAEs, but they died as soon as they got in the water after an hour of acclimation with 1 cup of water every 15 minutes. I just want something to handle the algae, I am probably going to get told bristlenose plecos here, but I'm just curious if there are other options.

 

[Chrisinator]

I think you should try bristlenose plecos but do not get the long fin ones as that would probably just attract the Tiger Barbs into attacking.

 

[koebwil]

That's about what I was thinking, but I wanted to make sure I didn't have a different option. I think I'll just wait until someone is selling some mega rad ancistrus on the swap and shop. How many would be reasonable for a tank this size, 5 otos kept it pretty clean until they got murdered.

 

[Chrisinator]

For a 35, I'd stick to 1. I have a 38g and mine is doing a pretty good job cleaning up some algae.

 

[garfieldnfish]

Get nerite snails. You are pretty close to the stocking limit with 16 tigers already and a BN will add 6 inches of heavy pooping fish to your tank. If you want to go with the pleco route get a rubberlip pleco. Much better algae eaters than BNs, they stay smaller and add a lot less to the bioload. But I would get nerites if I were you. If you get a mix like one horned, one tracked, one spotted, and one olive, they won't breed and leave the little white dots all over the tank. Nerites are also safe with assassin snails. I breed assassins and have nerites in all their tanks and they never get harrassed. Assassins do not take on snails much larger than they are and nerites are too large for them, just like they do not mess with adult apple snails. Baby apple snails don't stand a chance, but since nerites won't successfully breed in fresh water you won't have to worry about that either.

 

[koebwil]

Get nerite snails. You are pretty close to the stocking limit with 16 tigers already and a BN will add 6 inches of heavy pooping fish to your tank. If you want to go with the pleco route get a rubberlip pleco. Much better algae eaters than BNs, they stay smaller and add a lot less to the bioload. But I would get nerites if I were you. If you get a mix like one horned, one tracked, one spotted, and one olive, they won't breed and leave the little white dots all over the tank. Nerites are also safe with assassin snails. I breed assassins and have nerites in all their tanks and they never get harrassed. Assassins do not take on snails much larger than they are and nerites are too large for them, just like they do not mess with adult apple snails. Baby apple snails don't stand a chance, but since nerites won't successfully breed in fresh water you won't have to worry about that either.

I guess if they will not get harassed it is worth a try, I have some horned zebras in my shrimp tank and they are some of the coolest looking snails I've seen, and I know a place that sells them at $2 a pop, I'll look into the rubberlips too.