*correction I accidently said something confusing and made it sound lime rubber lip's are ancistrus, they are not, in fact i believe they are the only pleco actually with the name plecostimus and grow over one foot or 33 cm long!
How Well Do Plecos Clean Your Aquarium? What Are The Pros vs. Cons? Aka Bristle Nose Ancistrus.
Many folks purchase " sucker fish " in order to have their tanks cleaned, and in some cases there are several species that can and will do a great job of keeping certain forms of algae at bay. A so called clean up team for the aquarium cannot just be a pleco, ancistrus, otocinctlus or Siamese Algae Eaters, you also should be using snails, shrimp and colonized beneficial bacteria to clean hard surfaces on your tank.
In this tank i use a calico bristlenosed ancistrus to clean my aquascape. The are great at cleaning up grean algae and slimy algae, however do not eat or clean black beard algae or diatom algae, for those types as well as cyanobacteria and hair algae, you will need nerite snails, and amano shrimp as well as the SAE. However, plecos are great for keeping wood clean, rocks and stone looking pristine, and eating left overs off the bottom of the tank. just remeber to keep fiber in their diet and provide hiding places such as caves for them, and clean up the debris they produce weekly.
aquarium aquascaping and cleaning rock-Heavy, Iwagumi style aquascapes
