Best Cleanup Crew and Bottomfeeders for Freshwater Aquariums

What are the best fish, mollusks, and crustaceans for helping keep your freshwater aquarium free of excess waste and algae?

The Top Ten

Otocinclus Catfish

These are my personal favorite. Not only are they easy to care for and relentless at eating algae in every corner of your tank, but unlike most bottom feeders, they are highly entertaining, energetic schooling fish.
Nerite Snail

The most hardworking snail you can buy, with lots of variations in coloration and patterns too!
Flagfish

Featuring a beautiful appearance and acting as fantastic cleaners for all types of algae and waste, these guys are very easy to care for. They are especially noteworthy for their adaptability to a much wider range of temperatures than most fish in the trade.
Siamese Algae Eater

Fantastic at consuming algae, especially black beard algae on plants, decorations, and glass. They are also very entertaining to watch while they are hard at work.
Malaysian Trumpet Snail

These are fantastic, inexpensive cleaners that will go deep into your substrate, even gravel, to get all that built-up waste other cleaners cannot access. They will quickly breed and populate the tank bottom depending on how much waste has built up there, though this does not cause any real issues.
Mystery Snail

Great cleaners that come in a variety of colors. They are especially adept at cleaning algae from many surfaces, but they generally do not consume other waste.
Cory Catfish

Less efficient than some others, but they do their job well in groups and are very entertaining tank companions. There's quite a wide assortment of colors and patterns, and they are fantastic for aquarists of all skill levels.
Amano Shrimp

Arguably the best shrimp for cleaning up algae, especially in planted tanks. They constantly work in all the hard-to-access nooks and crannies and eat dead plant tissue. They also do not overpopulate at the same rate as many other shrimp.
Rabbit Snail

With their stunning appearance and low reproduction rate, these guys are great at eating algae, but they generally do not consume other forms of waste.
Bristlenose Pleco