Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2013 3:00 am Re: Algae eater tankmate?
If you have a serious algae problem in your tank, then you need to upgrade your filtration first. With adequate filtration, strong water flow and oxygenation algae won't be a problem. If you have excessive nitrate, change water more frequently. Second, if you want fish to help keep your tank clean, you need to go for a much larger tank. Otherwise, the fish don't have much chance to survive predation should your turtles decide those other guys look a lot like food. It will help a lot if the fish have plenty of places to hide where the turtles can't go. I have a couple of stainless wire shelves on the bottom of the tank that give the fish an inch and a half of relative sanctuary, plus a lot of HEAVY ornaments that provide hiding places and cover the stainless shelves. You could achieve the same with several pieces of ceramic or stainless pipe small enough in diameter to keep the turtles out.
Chinese algae eaters are not the best choice for secondary housekeeping for a couple of reasons. Assuming he doesn't get eaten when small, he will grow up to 12 inches in a few months! As Chinese algae eaters get bigger and older they stop eating algae and get very territorial and intolerant of other tank inhabitants. He wouldn't necessarily be a threat to your turtles, but who wants a big ornery fish that does nothing but harass everyone else in the tank and add to the bio load on your filter? Far better choice is an ancistrus or two ("bristle nose" pleco). These guys are not really plecos; they are a different species, but look very similar when very young. The big difference is a real pleco can grow to 2 feet! whereas the max size for an ancistrus is 5-6 inches.
Another great algae eater is the "albino" Chinese, aka Golden algae eater. These guys only grow to about 5-6 inches, keep eating algae all their lives and don't get nearly as territorial as the brown Chinese. If you have more than one in your tank, however, one will become dominant, grow larger than the other(s) and harass them to some extent.
Whatever fish you decide to put in your tank will require supplemental feeding with real fish food and algae wafers. Otherwise they'll soon starve to death after they've eaten all the algae growing in the tank and cleaned up the turtle food fragments. Also, when you purchase your fish buy the biggest ones you can. There's no sense tempting your turtles with tiny fish that look like baby guppies. I recently bought three otocinclus and the turtles ate two of them within 24 hours. I managed to get the third out of the tank and back to the store alive. The otos were just too small and not able to swim fast enough to keep out of harm's way.
I currently have three RES, 1 is a year and a half (more or less) and the others are 1 year old; two ancistrus; three Golden algae eaters; and, nine corydoras, seven Juliis, one green and one pepper. One of the Goldens is new (in the tank about a month); and the green and pepper corys are new (in the tank about a week), but all the others have shared a tank with the turtles since last December. So far the turtles seem to accept these fish as tank mates and not fast food. I think the otos looked a little too much like baby guppies. Also, my turtles sleep in a separate "night" tank, so the fish have the main tank to themselves all night, although the fish are all very active all day long when the turtles are in the main tank with them, especially the corys; except the ancistrus, which are nocturnal and seldom come out of their cubby holes during the day.
I might have a pretty unique situation, since I work at home and the aquarium is next to my work desk. So I can keep an eye on turtle/fish activity all day. If the turtles suddenly decided the fish look like food, then I would have to make other arrangements. It's an experiment in cohabitation, so we'll see how it goes.
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