QUOTE(abesabraham @ Jul 11 2013, 02:24 PM)
No plecos as they will suck your bichirs slime coat off. It is a matter of when, not which pleco. As soon as your pleco get a taste of ur bichir byebye bichir. You can get some otos. But the bichirs will eat it.
If you wanna keep your aquarium free of algae, do more water changes and do weekly maintenance. Just get a sponge or hard plastic card and scrub the algae off. By buying plecos and otos u r just avoiding the main cause. Which is the excess of nutrients in the water. You can also add more plants to compete with algae for nutrients.
But really its water changes and weekly maintanence. I do weekly water changes on mine and everytime water change time, i clean the sides. Crystal clear.
I agree with both u and genie as there are 2 school of thoughts on this.one group of people say that it actually depends on individual pleco as not all will suck on bichirs.i myself had a pleco kept together with bichirs, caught it sucking on them few times but never continuously.it eventually grew big and fat, not from eating slime coat nor algae lol.but kept on stealing my hikari cichlid gold floating type loool.i gave it away to a friend not cause of hazard to bichirs but cause it didnt serve its function.
And then theres the other group who strictly believe not to mix them. Play safe is better i suppose.
Regarding weekly water change, i totally agree as i witness this myself.but sometimes i get a little bit busier than usual and missed it

thats why i was asking for u guys' opinion or maybe experience.woot