When it comes to scavengers, what is your first impression? Alien invasive species? Aquarium cleaner? Alien fish? Most people should have their first impression of being "abominable alien species", right? But in fact, as a fish tank cleaner, the scavenger also has a certain value, not completely worthless. The scavenger, like the apple snail we said in the previous issue, has both advantages and disadvantages, and he must consider it in advance. Let's first introduce the scavengers.
The scavenger's scientific name is the lower catfish, which is native to the rivers of South America and was later introduced to China for mass breeding. His mouth can be like a suction cup, adsorbed in various places in the fish tank. It is a benthic fish species. The scavenger spends most of the day lying at the bottom of the fish tank or adsorbed in a corner of the fish tank, and at night he begins to move and eat, which is a kind of nocturnal fish. Loved living in a place where there was water flowing.
<h1>What are the advantages of scavengers? </h1>
Having said all that, what are the advantages of a scavenger?
1. I will nibble on algae
The scavenger is an omnivorous fish, the kind that almost everything loves. And the scavenger's mouth shape is just very suitable for eating algae, so the scavenger can be used to remove algae, and the efficiency is very high. No matter what kind of algae, except for the scavenger of the black hairy algae or something, other moss, brown algae and other adsorption algae, scavengers can easily nibble clean! And the scavenger eats a lot, has strong digestion ability, and is also industrious, which is a very good tool fish!
2. I eat food scraps
As a benthic fish, the scavenger will eat the feed residue that sinks to the bottom of the fish tank, and eat it very cleanly! Scavengers are much the same size and can be cleaned by drilling into gaps of different sizes. And scavengers are suitable for cleaning some of the larger fish tanks, such as the dragon fish tank. It is not appropriate for this kind of fish tank to raise some small benthic fish, such as ratfish, because generally some very fierce fish, dragon fish or maps and the like are raised in the tank, and the small benthic fish are killed in minutes.
And after a long time, food debris accumulates and affects the water quality, then the scavenger will be a good cleaner image! That type of fish is generally not cold to scavengers. So when we go to the aquarium shop, we see a scene of one or two scavengers in each big fish tank.
3. I have ornamentality
The scavenger breed is not only black, but also some other varieties. For example, the golden beard, the golden sail, the snowball queen, etc., these varieties are several times more ornamental than the scavengers we usually see. Scavengers are this type of fish that we call alien fish. The alien fish is also very good to look at when raised, and the value will become very high. Some varieties of scavengers are also extremely valuable after being expanded, and are not exactly the "alien species" we know. And the scavenger is also a low-oxygen fish!
Having said the advantages, let's talk about the disadvantages.
<h1>Scavengers are aggressive</h1>
As we said, scavengers are omnivorous fish. So he can eat meat too. There is a law of the jungle in the wild, and there are also in fish tanks. As long as a fish in the fish tank has a wound, the scavenger may chase him and suck his wound, and the last fish may be bitten and eaten alive by the scavenger. Or maybe the slightly larger scavengers will go straight to eat some healthy little fish if they don't have anything to eat. Polyculture must be polycultural with some small scavengers, otherwise scavengers like to eat vegetarian when they are young, and they like to eat meat when they grow up!
<h1>Scavenger Rado</h1>
Scavengers eat a lot, so they pull a lot! He works day and night, and the fish manure produced every day is incomparable to that of ordinary fish, especially when he becomes an adult! But if your physical filtering is strong enough, you don't have to worry too much. If you really can't do it, just use a toilet to clean up the fish feces.
If you don't hate him, you can still raise him! So how do you raise it? Quite simply, his vitality can be described in one sentence: "If there is water, live!" ”
environment
The environment doesn't really have much effect on the scavenger, but I recommend dodging more, which increases the scavenger's sense of security and avoids other ferocious predators.
water temperature
Generally, the scavenger is suitable for water temperature at 25-28 degrees, and it does not matter if it is slightly biased. But don't be too much, most of the fish in the tank like this temperature, if the temperature difference is too large, other fish including scavengers are not comfortable.
food
Scavengers like to eat cucumbers, ordinary fish feed, pumpkins, etc., generally prefer to eat vegetarian, usually a few weeks to feed once on the line, generally the organic detritus food residue produced in the fish tank, algae plant carcasses and so on can fill their stomachs.
Scavengers are indeed exotic species, and after being released, they have a great impact on the ecological environment! At present, there is no natural enemy in the country, he will eat the eggs of local fish, small fish fry, shrimp fry and so on. And rapid reproduction, extensive adaptability, tenacious vitality, the impact on the ecological environment is very large! Before raising, we must make up our minds, and we must not raise half of them and release them.
Although the scavenger is an exotic species, his value is also very high, and he is an indispensable member of the aquatic world!
If you also like to raise ornamental fish, you may wish to start pointing out a point of attention, all you need to know about fish farming is here.