I've been doing hours and hours of research online trying to figure out what are the best ones for the jobs and I just seem to get conflicting answers. I would really LOVE to know which ones have worked best for you.

I currently have a 46gal bowfront containing 2 fancies, 3 regular minnows and 2 hillstream loaches.

I need something to control the large amount of algae growth on the glass as well as the plants/gravel.

I had hoped to get more of the hillstreams, but the petstores here seem to be disinclined to carry them anymore. Plus, I havent really noticed them cleaning the tank very well...

I had read that white clouds work well with fancies but at the same time tend to spawn quite often. I had originally had a good number of regular minnows who also spawned often but unfortunately my goldfish ate but one of the fry before I noticed anything had happened... then the goldfish acted quite unwell for awhile. Im not sure if this is from eating all the fry or not. If I were to purchase white clouds would I run into the same problem?

I also read that the plecos tend to have a liking for the slime coat on the goldfish so do not make good tank mates?

I ran into a problem with an apple snail... im not sure if it is because the guy was not too friendly when he pulled it off the plant, because my goldfish kept harrassing it, or if it was just sick... but it only lasted 24 hours.

I have NO experience with ghost shrimp... i used to raise crawfish... i can only assume they are similar?

Please help me pick the best ones!

There are a couple kinds of plecos on this page that are compatible with goldies. Not sure about how well they do with algae, though.

Good luck and

Thank you so much for the link! Hopefully others may come forward and let me know about their own experiences

If you do get a pleco and he does take care of all the algea, then you will need to feed him veggies and algea wafers. Also, they need driftwood to stay healthy.

I regularly feed algae wafers and veggies, so that part isnt a problem, but i read that driftwood may cause problems with bacteria and disease for goldfish?

I have a couple ramshorn snails that do a reasonable job at keeping the tank clean. I haven't had any problems with them breeding either - my goldies seem to act as population control.

I read with the snails that they do not take well to medicines? that they will reacte to it the same way as the parasites? and does it make ur goldfish sick to eat the snails?

My goldies haven't been sick on any counts... so I haven't had to treat them for anything. I don't know how the snails would react to meds....

i have a bristle nose pleco and it is very good at cleaning the tank. ive had it for about 4-5 months and in taht time it never bothered my goldfish and it kept the tank sparkling clean.

i have a bristle nose pleco and it is very good at cleaning the tank. ive had it for about 4-5 months and in taht time it never bothered my goldfish and it kept the tank sparkling clean.

i have a bristle nose pleco and it is very good at cleaning the tank. ive had it for about 4-5 months and in taht time it never bothered my goldfish and it kept the tank sparkling clean.

sorry about that my comp lagged i guess and i kept on clicking on the post button.

again really sorry

On the back of most meds it will give you a list of fish it might harm, most of the time snails are on the list, all you would have to do is move the snails in to a small tank by themselves. Goldfish don't normally get sick if the eat a snail it's just another snack, and if the snail is large enough, it can't eat it at all. In a fancies tank I think snails are the best thing, the do a pretty good job of keeping the tank clean. Good Luck

Edit: Snails will eat your plants if you don't feed them enough. Dift wood can cause problems if you are not careful about keeping it clean, parts of the wood can break off, it could harm your goldies.

Fishermoe14:
That is all great stuff! It's quite alright about all the posts. I had read about the bristlenose, and I was hoping to hear that he has been leaving the goldies alone! YAY!

BlueAngel:
Thanks for the advice! Maybe I will try out a snail again.