10 Cleaner Fish For Your Aquarium - My Secret Weapons. 

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freshwater shrimp, do a video on freshwater shrimp, and what fish won't bother them and which ones will

Love my little Kuhli loaches! They’re always moving around the tank, wiggling through all the plants. Once I drop some food in they go NUTS, snuffling all over the place! So fun to watch!

My 10 gallon has about 40 red cherry shrimp, 7 endlers and a Betta, my favorite tank right now so much going on and low maintenance

my honey gourami watches my prefilter sponge like a TV

I am a huge fan of the Nerite snails and a Pleco per tank, but I also rely on various dwarf shrimp as well as Otocinclus... both of which add a lot of very interesting activity to the tank when they feel at home (and are kept in large social groups).

In my 35 I have a pair of albino cories, julii cories, a clown pleco, a SAE, and a good colony of pond snails as a clean up crew. I also keep platies, a swordtail pair, and some guppies in there too! I've also got a ton of plants and have very little need to do extra cleaning, except for an occasional WC. I also think you should have mentioned that although these fish are for cleanup, you need to feed them just like any other fish in your tank, especially if those other fish catch most of the food like my gluttonous platies lol. They can't survive on scavenging alone :) Also, that white pleco at 9:30 looks like something from another planet XD

I get cleaner fish to see different fish behavior in the tank. Sure it's nice to have a fish clean your tank but that's not the reason I buy cleaner fish.

I love that your channel brings the knowledge of many different species and the high production value as well. Hope to one day see you hit a million subs!

Never again will I look at a cory & not think "Roomba Fish". LOL

Hillstream loaches (butterfly loach) do WONDERS for algae. I have some in my tank and they do great at 80 degrees and below. Within a few days my algae problem was pretty much eliminated. On top of that they are fairly active fish and fun to watch when they're running around.

I was wondering about clean up crew the last week. This answered alot of questions. Very informative. Thanks Cory

1)Rainbow shark 2)Cichlid earth eater 3) Flagfish 4)Corydoras whisker crustacean eater 5) Platy Livebearer 6) Snails, Ramshorn , MTS, Nerite 7) Loaches (eat snails) Scavenger 8) Goldfish w/ good tank mate. 9) Bristlenose Pleco , super red, gold, rarer forms. Great w/ all fish.

Almost 200k! Keep it up Cory and great info as usual :)

Love this channel , I think its the best on you tube . Thanks for all your hard work Cory , I learn so much from you and I wish you lots of success you deserve it !

Spent the weekend building my first garage fish room! Totally inspired by you and Joel and jimmy. Thanks for all the advice

I absolutely love that you call fish "People"

Hey cory, just a big thanks to all the work you've put into your channel and aquarium co op, keep up all the amazing fish content!!!!!

As always Cory, brilliant. Thanks so much I spend all my time watching your channel. Better than TV for me.

You're one of the coolest informative aquarium guys on here.. I need to get some of your easy green fertilizer

Absolutely love my true Siamese Algae Eater. Peaceful and gets along with everyone else and wow very dedicated in cleaning every inch of the tank. Was also surprised when it ate poop.

I think my tank is all clean up crew. I have a little five gallon planted tank with 3RCS, 3panda corydoras and two snails (1nerite, 1golden Inca). Today it’s going to become a 10 gallon. I also love that you call fish “people. ”

I keep betta's in my one of my ten gallons. My cleaning crew is yes the infamous bladder snail, and ghost shrimp. In my 40 breeder, I have platy's and 2 Molly's. They Molly's do a good job, I also keep ghost shrimps, nitrate snails, mystery/ spiked top apple snail, and yes bladder snails, and a albino pleco, which is a bristlenose. The Molly's and platy's do a good job at keeping the bladder snails in check and my tank is pretty much algae free

Heaps of great selections Cory thanks. Corydoras are my favorite mainly because i just love keeping them, cleaning the tank is just a bonus. Have a great day mate. :)

Thank you for this very informative video... helped me decide on what to add in my tank

Amazing video I have all of those you said in all of my 14 tanks 👍

I like my cory catfish that clean up leftover food and amano shrimp that eat black algae off my slower growing anubias. Even the honey gourami picks at food crumbs that get stuck in the filter intake sponge. :)

Currently working on a corydoras and pleco tank! I love "the bottom feeders"

Great ideas! 👌 In my different community tanks I've got a rainboy shark, cherryshrimp, dwarf corys, a gabon shrimp, ancistrus and a lot of different snails; spixi, mystery, trumpets and rabbits ❤

In my 36 gallon Aquarium I have a clown pleco, 2 peppered Corydoras, 17 Zebra danios and 3 honey gourami. When I feed the danios they are very messy eaters so all the extra food goes to the bottom of the tank. When it is feeding time my Corydoras and gourmi wait at the bottom for the extra food. They are great cleaners! My pleco eats algae and cleans the tank fantastically! I couldn’t ask for a better tank.

I have a red tail shark and this is the first time I’ve heard someone else mention them, I was so excited

I love cleaners. My ''display tank'' has Kuhli Loaches, Bronze Cories, Bristlenoses, Cherry Shrimp, Amano Shrimp and Assassin Snails. The only actual water colums fish I have in there is a school of Amanda Tetras and a single Platy. Both of those were rescues.

I have a gold themed 10 gallon tank with my blue and red Half Moon Betta standing out. I have two Marigold Platies, two Golden Mystery Snails, and a Ghost Shrimp. I have good filtration, lots of live plants, and of course tons of hiding places! My Betta has a good temperament so I don’t worry about him bullying my Platies, worst thing he has done is just flare his gills once when he got cocky. They’ve been together for a month now with absolutely no issues! Best community tank I’ve owned! All of my creatures clean up after each other and it works out perfectly!

I use loaches to sift through my gravel and I use mystery snails for the glass. It’s a simple set up but it’s also got two guppies and a ghost catfish

Again...learning a lot from you!!! Absolutely love all of your videos. If I was limited to only watching one person's vids, they would be yours!!!

You touched on all my favorites. Of course I’m partial to super red plecos.

Thanks for the video I really appreciate your help keep up the good work my friend your friend Gman

I always end up with too many bottom dwellers - they are just so much fun to watch. My new favorite pleco are the Chaetosoma species - they much on algae as good as or better than an ancistrus!

I have turtles in my goldfish tank (55g) and the goldfish absolutely do a great job at cleaning up after the turtles. I just switched from a HOB filter to a canister on that tank a few weeks ago, and since then the water has been absolutely crystal clear, I can look through the side (as in not the wide viewing panel.) of the tank and see my bookshelf a few feet from the other side.

Cory been following you and my fish are doing great I order from your store as well great products and service is really the Best thank you so much for the information

Enjoyed watching. Thank you for sharing!

my 13 gal has 5 guppies, 3 peppered cories, and a betta. dont worry, they've been together for over 3 months, and no one's been killed.

Great video, Cory. My go-to clean-up fish is the true Siamese Algae Eater. Peaceful, attractive, hardy, lot's of personality, excellent at consuming algae, and quite good at finding uneaten food in the tank. The one I currently have I named "Mop" because he's so good at cleaning up.

Another awesome video braddah love ur “Top” videos, those are my fav, thank you for everything you do for our hobby much love and aloha 🤙🏽🐠🤙🏽

I'm still on my first tank, so I'm not an expert (yet), but I find that my dwarf gourami is a great scavenger. I used to overfeed flakes months ago when I first got fish in there, and every time he'd spend well over an hour pecking at all the cracks and crevices of the gravel, sucking up leftover flakes.

I love your channel and all of the info you have to share man. Thank you so much.

emerald green cories are my absolute favorite!

Our Sunset Thick Lip Dwarf Gourami loves to constantly pick and clean stuff off the rocks, driftwood, and also the HOB intake pre-filter we got from Aquarium CO-OP!👍

Hi Cory, I am new to fish keeping. It all started when my 6 year old wanted to get fish. Now, I’m enjoying this way too much. Your channel is the only one I’ve ever actually subscribed to! Keep up the great work.

Nice list thx I have mollies, trumpet snails, and I'm picking up a pair of bristlenose to finish up the crew for my 40 gallon. I wanted something like platies but bigger so I chose the mollies. It's fun watching all the fry and juveniles top to bottom all over the tank. For plants I have frogbit and hornwort. The fry hide in there 2-3 weeks before exploring the tank.

When I did freshwater, I had a trio of horseface loaches and they were excellent at filtering out everything in my sand bed.

I think a great over looked clean up fish is the flag Tail prochalotus and also the kissing gourami both are great options for a large predator tank because of there large adult size also don't forget about the Siamese algae eater another great cleaner fish for a slightly smaller set up and I really like the reticulated Siamese algae eater color form I find they seem to do a better job too

Zebra Otocinclus + Yoyo Loach! I like this cleaner group. Great looking combo, well patterned. Can keep Amano shrimp with both if you have decent structure for shrimp & some plants. Peaceful & easy! A little cover of carpeting plant or Crypt Parva + few other easy plants + moss ball pitched in the corner. These little guys keep well together even with Amano Shrimp. Yoyo Loach do dig around the substrate and can uproot small root plants such as hairgrass... avoid hairgrass! Stick to moss & some strong stem plants. Read on if you care to know more about this combo... Really just use any plants with strong root base, because the yoyo loaches do forage deep which makes them efficient cleaners. These scavengers are very easy to keep & feed as long as your algae is fully developed into an established aquarium & your moss is strong. The only issue some starters experience when buying Otocinclus or yoyo loach is they add them too early and they eat algae so well that they actually eat ALL of the algae out of the tank and then need to be supplemented with algae wafers (divided into tiny 5ths) and some beginners fall into this trap. Also I said Amano Shrimp, i will add the adults are safe to keep, however keep your yoyos fed well or they may veiw dwarf shrimp as a snack. How I use them: Amanos & Otos ("Autos" are like auto-vacuums for algae) are my "go-to" cleanup crew in my nano tanks, and also larger tanks... using them in my 29 and even my bigger 75 gal. Otos are small suckers at 1.5" that combo up well with Amano shrimp which also get 1.5" & eat algae increadibly well. Amanos pick up the VERY small stuff that the others do not. Do not underestimate the power of small cleaners in a large tank. I avoid large pleco. Common pleco, spotted pleco are big & cool, beautiful species to keep, but in terms of cleaning effectiveness & less waste, go with 4 Otocinclus and 10+ Amano shrimp and just skip the pleco variety which will eat your moss. Otos alone will absolutely scour the tank barren of ALL types of algae but leave your moss & plants in pristine condition. Keep atleat 4 Otos, if going fewer in a tiny nano tank, then just be aware they do better & live longer w/ 4 or more of the same species. Some online will even say 6 or more but I find four (2 pairs) to be fine. So just be aware, there are several different kinds of Otos & different sizes. In my nano I only keep dwarf. In larger, I personally like the looks of Zebra Otocinclus w/ the Yoyo Loach (2 pairs) because of their cool looking patterns.

I keep ramshorn snails in all my tanks. I actually ended up with them by accident in one tank, lol, but personally I think they’ve been a big help. I love my snail crew.

Amano shrimp are one of my favorite shrimp when it comes to cleaners!

Learned so much lol my tank is always fairly clean which makes sense now bc I have some corydoras, some platies and a dwarf gourami!

My fav. are silver flying foxes. They are constantly combing for algae

Random one but Gold Barbs eat very well and will spend a lot of time going around the bottom of the tank looking for left over food after you’ve fed them. Had them for 3 plus years and very impressed how tidy they are.

I have two peppered corrydoras in my ten gallon tank. (They are growing out for my 55 gallon to go with the rest of the school) and they spend their days eating the stuff that settles in my gravel. They are super cute!

Good solid video. Thanks Cory

Otos are awesome too! I have a small group in my guppy tank...

I have a Veiltail Betta Male, 3 Neon Tetras & 2 Cory Catfish(Corydoras) which are my clean up crew in a 5.5 gallon!🥰 And they are all thriving and striving happily together!🤗

Corys are one of my favorite fish! I have a panda, 2 albinos and a blue one in my 29 gal, 2 albino in my 10 g

55 gal Mbuna tank. I am a big fan of invertebrates. Crayfish are awesome. The small ones, not the freshwater lobster they cook. Also a handful of ghost shrimp once a month or so is good to get into all the stinky places.

Thank you for sharing this list of fish and snails that can serve as one's cleanup crew. I would rather use Geophagus rather than Goldfish in larger tanks as part of one's cleanup crew. However, the great variety of fancy Goldfish (Oranda, Ranchu, Butterfly, etc) would make these guys a must for some. Larger Tanks (30 gallons or larger) would be a more suitable home for them. I do like that you have Platies on this list as they are a favorite of mine, and they too are available in a great variety of colors. I am glad your trip to Peru netted you some really great fish. Enjoy them and Happy Fishkeeping.

I got my first Geo last week! Along with kubitia Loaches, also amazing cleaners!

I have a combination of kuhli loaches and bristlenose plecos (red) in almost all of my tanks. They make the maintenance very easy.

I've noticed Mystery/Apple snails do not clean as well as others, but they do help. Would recommend for most tanks, just keep in mind they are air breathers and could die in too big of a tank.

Your videos are so helpful and I love your shop! I have been searching your page for glass catfish but I don't see anything. Hopefully they'll make the list one of these days!

We had a “stick catfish” that was the best algae eater I’ve ever seen!

I set up a really cool ecosystem planted 10 gallon. -Guppies (2) -dwarf frog (as the predator) - ghost shrimp (5) - dwarf corydoras (3) Heavily planted

I have one black kuhli loach for cleanup in my 29, am planning on getting 1 or 2 more. Also i've noticed my blood red dwarf gourami spends a fair amount of time picking at the gravel looking for leftovers.

Good vid Cory, a few different fish to think about cheers.🤙

Harbor seals will keep larger tanks pretty clean and school together well, too!

I love my little bronze corydoras and my platys theyre so pretty AND theyre helpful!

Great informative short video!! Thanks Cory

Platys are awesome. My first planted tank was a disaster drowning in algae, until I threw in some of my daughter's platy fry. No more algae! And the fry do work their way into the craziest spots to get food (and hide)

In my larger tanks I use the flagtail (flagtail prochilodus) that does a great job on algae and nice to look at also. I would recommend them in at least a 220, but a 8’ x 3’ would be best. They are very slow growers also.

Appreciate what you do and you knowledge. THANKS

My 10 gallon has a Koi Betta and 2 African Dwarf Frogs

Love these top 10s, keep em coming

Great video, lets not forget about Dwarf suckers (Otocinclus) they are great community fish and due to their size, they can get into many places to eat algae.

I have a Flagfish in with my Mbuna cichlids and she (Lady Liberty) runs the tank and loves hanging out with them and vice versa. Same with my Electric Blue Lobster as well (only when its feeding time).

I’ve got octos and cichlids in mine I also keep yellow fire shrimp in there too as I only have a 6 gallon tank. Octos don’t get very big and are great especially if you have a fast moving tank. Mine tend to be full of themselves anyway.

With the help of these little ones it is even more easy to maintain the tank clean! - Isabel

In my 5 gallon I have guppies(6) a fancy Betta, and 2 mystery snails(because i love them!) and a dwarf clown pleco. The only maintenance i do is flip the rocks and decorations over so the algae dies on one side and a vacuum once every 4 months or so. Easy Peasy! This tank has been going for about 3 years!

Shrimp! I know there's lots of different critters that help but in my aquariums, if I can keep shrimp in the tank with the fish, those have always been my best running tanks. And cory cats! I have a pair that have been ready and willing to work on any tank their in.

Who could "hate" a snail? I think they are soooo cute! :-)

When you look like Andy from the office

I absolutely love my Flagfish. I’m from Florida so they’re native here, but I normally buy mine at local shops. To me, the females look like mini bass fish since they lack the “flag” coloration of the males. Like livebearers, I’d recommend keeping one male for every two or three females and in my experience I haven’t had more than two males survive my 20 gallon high (I currently have two males and six females). These fish do clean algae, but they will also pick at exposed roots and more delicate plants, and they will dig slightly. They’re also a bit unpredictable with temperament; my current batch ignores the mollies, glass shrimp, and snails in my tank (the mollies even shoal with the flagfish sometimes), but I’ve had some fish devour inverts and chase fish as well. I’ve noticed that if the fish are well fed (they love algae wafers as a treat) and in slightly bigger groups, they tend to ignore inverts and other fish. I really hope these fish become a bit more popular, they’re super fun fish to keep and super easy fish to take care of once you know a few tricks.

Another awsome video sir thanks. Happy fishkeeping

I have a new 34ltr fluval which I have some guppies in with some harlequin rasboras and some striped tetra. The clean up crew I have in this tank is amazing and seems well balanced. I have 2 Venezuelan black Cory's 4 otocinclus dward cats and 3 bamboo/wood shrimp. My glass is always clean and tank always looks great

I have a group of Geophagus Steindachneri in my 125 american tank, there is never any food left over or sand left un-turned, they are fantastic as a clean up crew

I have 2 salt and pepper cory catfish. Love those guys. They never stop.

I have limpets in my tank. They hitchhiked from some live plants but man do they do an amazing job of cleaning algae.

My 2 blue platies do it a degree, but my 2 yellow mollies are the shop vacs in my 29 gal. They nibble stuff off the air lines, decorations, glass, and gravel.

Great info. Glad I found your channel

Thanks for the information!

I find in my tank that Plecos, pepper cory catfish and mystery snail really help out and that they are interesting to watch!

Awesome video as always Corey! I got me some MTS and some pond snails