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Bristlenose catfish and echinodorus

JaExile

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Lichfield
Hi .. in a desire to reduce algae I introduced a pair of bristlenose catfish who have done what comes naturally and I probably have 6 of them now in a tank 120x60x60. Whilst they do no damage to my cryptocorynes, Anubis, and bulbs with the exception of Echinodorus blehari all my attempts at growing other echinodorus especially red Foliage echinodorus have provided expensive treats for the catfish.
Am I wasting my time with the red variants
Are there any other more robust / fast growing echinodorus that I might try instead?
 
Hi .. in a desire to reduce algae I introduced a pair of bristlenose catfish who have done what comes naturally and I probably have 6 of them now in a tank 120x60x60. Whilst they do no damage to my cryptocorynes, Anubis, and bulbs with the exception of Echinodorus blehari all my attempts at growing other echinodorus especially red Foliage echinodorus have provided expensive treats for the catfish.
Am I wasting my time with the red variants
Are there any other more robust / fast growing echinodorus that I might try instead?
I have a single Bristlenose and he loves the E. Bleheri. Leaves the red ones alone. I’ve started feeding vegetable matter and Vitalis pellets and it seems to be helping a little.
 
I have dozens of bristlenose with Amazon sword, and dont notice them lunch on the sword. But I keep mostly small bristle, selling off big ones as small bristle are lighter and more efficient algae eater. I also have lot of plants not limiting to sword, so plenty of surfaces for bristle to feed on.

How can you tell your bristle lunch on the sword and not the the sword disintegrating on its own
 
It's funny that you have bleheri doing ok because it's the one sword that bristle noses go straight for ime. I've had much better luck keeping them with the tougher leaved species.
Once my ancistris reached maturity no amount of extra feeding stopped it stripping the leaves.
 
It's funny that you have bleheri doing ok because it's the one sword that bristle noses go straight for ime. I've had much better luck keeping them with the tougher leaved species.
Once my ancistris reached maturity no amount of extra feeding stopped it stripping the leaves.
Same, mine leave echinodorus ocelot and similar varieties alone. Bleheri gets devoured, I ended up removing them because they looked so ugly covered in holes.

Cheers
 
I have Anscistrus L144, and Hemiancistrus subviridis L200, they do little damage to various cryptocorynes, they get spirulina and tetra catfish granules, every day, both prolific algae eaters
 
Thank you all for your advice and experiences, which I have tied to put in place. More vegetables (cucumbers and courgettes). Took the advice of aqua essentials and purchased 2 echinodorus sunsets as they are supposed to be stronger. Alas within 2 days of the plants being in the tank they look more like aponogetons Madagascariensis than echinodorus. I haven’t tried to catch the parent catfish yet and I’m wondering if the platties might also have a part to play ?
I may need to thin out those numbers as well as the catfish
Thanks again for your help
 
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