They prefer to be kept in groups rather than alone, and they can grow to about 6 inches.Īs to the aquarium size for them, they are best kept in aquariums of sizes of at least 30 gallons if you want to keep more of them, then a 50-gallon tank is a better choice. You can see how these fish could be popular, with their unique appearance which makes them a great choice for a bottom feeder to keep some variety in your tank. This is a very unique-looking fish with a very long tail and some interesting features.

The last on the list is the whiptail catfish. They are quite social and outgoing animals. These fish are stunning, and their colors represent the colors of pandas.

Panda loach, like pandas in real life, is quite rare fish.They are possibly the smallest out of all loaches, which makes them a great choice for community tanks. Zebra loaches have vertical bands all over their bodies, which reminds us of zebras.They can be shy, and they are better kept in schools. Why are they called yoyo loaches, you might wonder? Well, it is because of their stripe patterns on their bodies which looks like it has the word yoyo written on its body. Yoyo loaches are a subspecies of loaches with a very interesting name.The minimum tank size for these is 15 gallons. They are at their most active at night, and they will remain in hiding spots during the day. Kuhli loachesare very interesting – they have long bodies, which can make them appear like they are snakes.We will cover each subspecies individually. They are all loaches, but they differ in color, appearance, behavior or some other feature. When it comes to loaches, there is a great variety of subspecies of loaches that you can choose from. You can check out my other article, where I enumerate some of the most popular catfish species you can keep in aquariums. In this article, we will look at the best bottom feeder fish for freshwater tanks. It would be a good idea to have bottom feeder fish in your tank, especially because they represent and give your tank more variety and make it more interesting.Īnother good thing about bottom feeders is that they clean the leftover food in your tank and also they get rid of any leftovers that could be left in the substrate. They also have flatter bellies, which helps them move around the tank easier. Some of these fish have suckermouths, which help them to suck onto the surface and collect algae or such material. They have barbels near their mouths that help them find the food – these are the whiskers that you can see on their bodies. This trait does not mean that these fish don’t actually have worse mouths than other fish, but it means that they have their mouths more at the bottom of their bodies, which allows them to consume the food from the substrate easier. They have traits like the inferior mouth. These traits help them survive in such an environment and enable them to live comfortably there. They have developed some specific traits that make them more appropriate for living near the bottom of the tank. They are called bottom feeder fish because they dwell near the bottom of the aquarium, usually near the substrate, and they collect uneaten food and leftovers there. Bottom feeder fish can become an integral part of any aquarium out there.

Fresh water bottom feeder fish