- Hey everyone, Cory from aquarium coop.
Today we're talking about my top five bottom dwellers.
So, they're gonna eat off the bottom.
A lot of people want cleaner fish, this is,
this list is for you.
So at number five, I've got Geophagus.
What does that mean?
That means sand sifter or earth eater.
That's what these guys are right here.
They basically go down
and they grab mouthfuls of sand
or gravel when they get big enough.
They sift through it and spit them back out.
Kind of like you've seen goldfish do.
The come in some different varieties
which is super nice, they get kinda large,
six to 10 inches depending on species.
That's why they're number five.
If they were smaller, I could recommend them more.
Some of them could be more aggressive,
some are also super peaceful
like these guys are the middle of the road,
where as like a Jurupari which we have down over here,
which we have very few left 'cause we sell 'em.
Let's see, where'd we go, we got one right down here
you can see him doing his action right?
You see him sifting the sand through his gills?
That's what they do, they do that all day long,
looking for food.
And they're going to keep that substrate turned over for you
and if you have a few earth eaters in your aquarium,
you won't have to gravel-vac anymore
because they'll do it for you.
Now, that being said, they can dig up plants a little bit.
Unless you put big rocks around it
so they can't dig into it.
But they're going to that all day long
and be little worker bees for you.
So that's my number five pick.
My number four pick is a specific fish,
not a family of fish.
We're going to slide way down here, let me find where it is.
Right here, okay.
It is a dwarf petricola catfish
also known as Synodontis Lucipinnis.
That's what these little guys are right here.
They only get about three inches.
They kinda swim like sharks.
They're just super cool.
Of course they're hiding out 'cause they're catfish,
and they're nocturnal but they're great little cleaners.
They eat of the bottom, they'll swim kinda mid water
and up, when they're smaller.
And they just look super cool
because people when they buy them,
they're like, oh man, that's a cool lookin' fish,
I like keeping that.
They do best in little groups of like, three or more.
The only downfall to them is they're about $18 a piece.
They're not cheap but they do stay relatively small,
that's kinda nice.
So yeah, let's move into group number three.
This is another family of fish
and we're gonna go way down here
to start out with my favorites of them.
They get the largest of course.
But that would be these guys.
Clown Loaches.
Loaches are my number three.
I love them 'cause in a big group,
when you do keep them in a big group, of 10 or more,
they're super duper active.
Now these ones, they get huge.
They get like, 12, 14 inches or so
but they will eat of the bottom.
They're good at cleaning.
You can see the substrate in here if you look at it.
See how there's all these little pits and everything around?
That's 'cause they're constantly going through it
looking for food, so they're doing their job.
But up here, we've got other types of loaches,
like the Kuhli loach.
They also do that.
They stay much smaller.
They get to about three and a half inches or so.
Not that big around.
They do really well in planted tanks
and in general, they're nocturnal.
Most bottom dwellers are going to be.
But they just kinda hang out and do their thing.
Now let's take a look at little more
just so you get a sample size here.
So here we've got dwarf chain loaches.
This is my favorite loach
for planted tanks 'cause they will kinda go up mid water.
You can get a school of 'em.
The downfall is they're about 12 bucks a piece,
but boy are they personable and active.
They also take care of any snail problem
if you don't like snails which, I, myself,
if you watch my other videos you know I love snails.
But, and lets say that wasn't your variety,
like oh, I don't like that one that much.
Okay fine.
Let's look at some zebra loaches.
I like these too.
They only get about four inches or so and they've got that
wicked cool pattern. Keep them in a group of three or more
and they'll be happy you see some hangin out on the sponge
and yes, they are plant safe which is great.
So there ya go.
Alright, number two.
Number two is shrimp
and I tell ya why they're number two
and not number one, 'cause they can't live with everything.
A lot of things will eat shrimp so that's kind of a problem
but, lets take a look at 'em.
In here we've got some cherry shrimp.
Which just means they're red ones.
If we scroll over here a little bit,
we've got some orange ones
and then if we go to the last tank over here.
A little bit low on shrimp at the moment.
We should have some blue ones.
And you see some blue ones.
They come in a lot of different colors which is nice
and they just comb through everything
and they reproduce, they make more.
Big fish will eat them though.
But they're one of the greatest
bottom dwellers and scavengers.
They'll just keep, you can just see them everywhere, right?
Because they're smaller, they can get in the nooks
and crannies and really help you out.
And here's a little bonus one that didn't make the list
'cause it's pretty rare and uncommon
but, dwarf anchor catfish. That's kind of a cool guy,
only gets about an inch and three quarters.
There's another one right there so,
kind of an oddball but you ask
well, Cory, what is the number one?
Well my name is Cory, can we guess?
Corydoras, right?
So they come in so many different
varieties and that's a good thing.
Like in here, we've got habrosus and they're nice and small.
And there's other dwarf varieties,
they come in really small, but also we've got
the normal size, like here we go, we've got Salt and Peppers
and over here we've got albinos
which that's good as well.
And if we keep scrolling down through the store,
really you'll see here we've got bronzes,
we go a little bit more, I'm sure we'll find more.
We've got the sterbai is one of my absolute favorites here.
We've got the orange pectoral fins and all the spotting.
Another real popular one is going to be the Julii Cory.
All that reticulation pattern.
Big favorite.
Another real popular one is the panda Cory.
These ones don't get as big.
They only get about two inches
where a lot of these other ones will get three inches or so.
And with the bronze getting three and a half.
Then you've got some rare oddballs
like the green laser here.
Ya know definitely a more expensive of a fish
and ya know something like that, that fish right there
is 17 bucks whereas these pandas are only six bucks
and the juliis are six bucks as well
and they do best in groups so really six or more.
That's why some of the dwarf species work out
a lot better for some people.
Here we've got the corydora axelrodi.
These are kinda just a nice different one.
There's literally a couple hundred different corydoras
so, they're an armored catfish
so they typically don't get beat up on
by all types of community fish, they do great.
They can live in a little school, the scavenge around.
They clean the bottom and they're personable
and likable, that's my last tip I would give ya.
Only buy bottom dwellers you actually
want to keep as a fish, don't just buy a cleaner fish.
That's like buying a dog to clean up your floor
at your house.
It's like well they're going to eat the crumbs off the floor
but they have to go to the bathroom.
Kinda the same problem, right?
So, ya know, make sure you want it as a pet
not just as a cleaner.
Hope you enjoyed the list.
Check out our other lists.
Check out our species profile.
Check out what we do every week
and we'll see you in the next one.
Thanks for watching.