ultimate cleaning fish?

[61scout80]

i have a 10 gallon, and my sand bed and rock needs some one to clean them up. what type of fish do you recomend?

[ReadyReefer]

there is no fish that i know of tiny enough for a 10 gallon that will clean rocks. instead use snails and hermits

[FLcracker94]

yea, not really any fish for 10ga.

 

One of the best sand cleaner fish I've seen is the yellow head sleeper goby, But those get to 7.1 inch long.

[kkyyllee]

hermits and snails

[StevieT]

Get yourself a lawnmower blenny. He will keep the rocks and glass free of algae.

[Gerber77]

lawnmower blenny

I agree

[imrinkrat]

If you get hermit crabs and snails learn from my mistake and get a pack of extra shells to throw in the tank. Otherwise when the hermits grow out of their shells they will kill and eat the snails (or other crabs) to steal their shells....

[StevieT]

If you get hermit crabs and snails learn from my mistake and get a pack of extra shells to throw in the tank. Otherwise when the hermits grow out of their shells they will kill and eat the snails (or other crabs) to steal their shells....

 

Good advice! Mine move around to different shells just for fun. If one is feeling like he isn't getting enough respect, he'll just move to the biggest shell in the tank. Once that gets old and becomes hard to transport, it's back into a smaller one.

[Joe b]

Lawnmower

[phil_ip]

I agree with the lawnmower, but make sure you get a small one and have a place to move him once he grows. He will definitely get too big although I'm not sure how fast they grow. I've seen some that were probably about 6 inches.

[Pacifique]

I was thinking lawnmower when I read the title.

I have one in my 10g, but he doesn't really "clean" much because my hermits and snails do such a good job. I really got it because of its personality.

 

He was about 1-1.5 inches when I got him, and he hasn't really grown much.

[kkyyllee]

i think a lawnmower blenny would be a pita to get out when it outgrowqs the tnak, youd have to take apart your whole tank

[Horrorshow]

I wouldn't go with a lawnmower blenny. I had one in my 10 gal but there wasn't enough algae to support him. His stomach kept shrinking and shrinking until his eventual demise from starvation. Nassarius snails make excellent sand stirrers. Just make sure you have plenty of extra shells in the tank if you have hermits. Blue leg hermits are notorius for killing and eating small snails like nassarius if they dont have any extra realestate around. Nassarius snails are cheap too!

[Toomin]

Nassirius snails.

[redbrick]

I've recently observed that amphipods are probably the best cleaners of all mediums in a tank. They seems to eat off anything and everything. They appear to be harmless to all my corals, some have developed a symbiotic relationship with my astrea snails. They are somewhat territorial, but the juveniles just love to play. I have a large colony of them now...and have enjoyed watching them more each day.

 

Hope this helps some...

[joker1857]

you could get a molly miller blenny. they stay small and mine does a great job at all kinds of algae(except red slime algae).

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cl...;articleid=3157

[this1fish]

I have a yellow headed jaw fish and a shrimp goby pair in my 15gh. These guys keep my sand super clean since they are always working on their burrows. the yellow watchman does sift sand though. otherwise, hermits and snails would do very well.

[Pacifique]

I will retract my previous suggestion of the lawnmower blenny. They are really hard to feed, and they will starve unless they are in a well established tank with plenty of hair algae. They eat constantly in the wild, and are quite difficult to keep in captivity.

 

I have a 10 gallon as well, and I had some trouble with algae for a while, and the best thing to get would be red-legged hermits, an emerald crab, and some snails. Listen to what others have suggested, and get some invertebrates.

[DudE31]

get a fw molly and acclimatize it to sw ... no more algae problem lmao