Sturisoma sp. questions

[illumnae]

Hi, just a few questions regarding whiptail catfishes of the sturisoma genus...i'm not really sure which species the LFS carry so i thought i'd just be more general in my questions =)

i'm thinking of getting a couple of these as algae cleanup crew for my planted discus tank as i was advised ancistrus sp. would rip up my hairgrass lawn and otos are small enough that my discus would harass or even swallow them.

so my questions would be:
1. how hardy are these guys?
2. what kinds of algae do they eat?
3. how efficient are they at it (i know otos and ancistrus clear green spot algae super fast, do these guys perform similarly?)
4. anything in particular do i need to take note of with these guys?

Thanks in advance for your advice =)

[bryan]

Not very effective. At least mine isn't. She seems to go for the same kind of algae that otos go for. Then she waits for sinking wafer together with the corys. Leaves my plants alone though.Try to get a bigger specimen as young ones are rather fragile. A nice easy catfish to have.

[illumnae]

thanks for the info bryan

i ended up getting some 2.5-3inch ones from qian hu at a rather low price compared to other LFS that i've seem them at. quite surprising as i always found qian hu rather cutthroat. but i was there with my fiancee and she was excitedly pointing at the tank telling me that was the fish i wanted...so i got them haha

[benny]

bryan's right. These catfished also feed on brown and green algae. For tougher algae like spot algae, nothing beats a plastic card and 5 minutes of elbow grease.

However, given their size, they should hot be haressed by your discus.

Cheers,