I wanna get a pleco or something because I am getting algea and I guess I'm not doing a very good job at cleaning it out. But I'm wondering even though the algea eating fish dont swim as much will I be overstocked? Will there be bullying? I would get apple snails but I dont think our lfs sells them and I heard they make the water smell bad so we might get complaints in the building. Help?

Hi Ramen

A couple question's for you.

1- How big of a tank do you currently have?
2- How many fish are you housing right now?

As far as I know Pleco's are pretty peaceful guy's. I would think if you have enough room for one, Go ahead and get one. You could alway's look into getting Cana's also. I have 5 snail's in my tank and they do a pretty good job of keeping the tank clean, I have never had a problem with the water smelling??

Oh sorry! I thought I put that in there!

3 goldfish in a 29 gallon tank

and the smelling thing I just heard from someone but I can't remember who

Your already a tad overstocked...I'm not sure how much water plecos are supposed to need. If you get one just make sure you don't get a common pleco

I'm not totally sure how much water Pleco's need either- But I think with VERY good filtertaion and proper water changes you would be okay for now. Maybe look into a bigger tank in the future.

Some of it also depends on the type of goldies you have also.

I agree.If you're doing weekly maintainence,and have the proper filtration,you could probably get away with one Bristlenose.The only thing about Bristlenoses is that they require a piece of Driftwood,as it aids in their digestion and really is a must.Driftwood will also alter your ph somewhat,so if you're allready having ph problems,that is something to consider. Cana's will eat Algae ,but they'd much rather eat fish food/fresh Veggies. They cannot live very long on algae alone. If people have mentioned their water having some sort of bad odor's,my first question would be ,"What is their Params,and how often are they doing water changes"? My snail tanks have no bad odor problems,but when feeding them certain veggies,you will sometimes smell the odor of those.