# help/advice pls



## fly4awhiteguy (Dec 27, 2011)

I have a 40 gal tank with about 25 juvie saulosi (i know its overstocked, im waiting for them to colour up so i can seperate them) up until recently i was fine with no tank probs, but a few weeks ago i started to see algea growing on all the rocks, so i went and bought a pleco that was about the same size as the saulosi. When i put him in all the other fish ganged up on him and he immediately went into hiding. Feeling sorry for him, i scooped him out and transferred him to my community tank, and put my chinese algea eater in with the cichlids- now i should mention that the algea eater was more than double the size of the cichlids, and by far the most aggressive fish in my community tank. It has been about a week and a half, and i cant even find the algea eater i havent seen him for quite some time now and starting to wonder if he is even still alive. 

Does anyone know what kind of fish i can put in this tank to keep it clean?


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## adrenaline (Jan 17, 2011)

sounds like your soulosi are a little on the aggressive side. you can usually get away with most varieties of plecos depending on the sizes of fish/pleco. To be safe you may want to stick with medium sized Synodontis species.

Algae problems may not be fully solved by plecos alone either. you may want to reduce the amount of time you have your lights on, or even have your tank go a couple days without light (if you have no plants, or low light plants) to help reduce algae.

Remember that algae can also result from over feeding. Reducing the amount of food you feed the fish, and possibly increasing the frequency of feeding may also help. 

Make google and aquarium forums yoru best friend for algae problems though. you can find a lot of useful stuff. 

Or if you want, try calling Mike at Finatics Aquarium. I'm sure he'll have compatible plecos for you


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## fly4awhiteguy (Dec 27, 2011)

ok thanks for the advice.. I will try to reduce the light by a few hours and I will start to feed them less (I feed twice a day)I will also consider other alternatives like you mentioned for a cleanup crew.


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## fly4awhiteguy (Dec 27, 2011)

well the peace and harmony lasted almost a month.... the plecos I added ( 2 gold spot and 2 BN) would hide all day and come out after dark when the rest of the tank was sleeping - however today I came home and my girlfriend told me that not only did the saulosi gang up on 1 pleco and kill it, but afterwards they ate it!!! this surprised the hell out of me considering that I was under the impression that saulosi were not carnivourus breed of fish... needless to say the other plecos got moved to another tank tonight.


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