need help from the Algae Eater brigade

[Crocodylus]

I just came from my LFS and they have on sale what they call a "Gold Algae Eater" .. The fish is totally yellow/gold in color, and I have been searching the web for any info on it, but to no avail, anyone knows what kind is it? Any help on genus/pics/compatiblity/etc. would be appreciated

Thanks!

[ziskus]

It's the gold form of the Chinese Algae eater. Do NOT get them. Let me repeat that: do NOT get them. They are cute when they are small, but grow rather quickly and start terrorizing other tank mates. And it's a pain in the a$$ to net them out later. Get the true Siamese Algae or Otocinclus instead.

[Crocodylus]

Consensus seems to be that they are gold chinese algae eaters. Glad i didn't buy them, gonna keep looking for otos or siamese algae eaters. Thank you all for your help :cool:

[valerie]

yeah gold chinese algae eater.Good thing you didn't buy one.

What type of algae are you trying to get rid of? This will determine what kind of algae eater you need. I have tried out lots of algae eaters and this is what i found.

bristlenose plecos- They eat the most variation, soft green algae, brown algae and hair algaes.

otos- Mostly brown algae(diatoms) they have never touched green algae in my tanks.

SAE- good for hair algae and even BBA(although they have to be practically starving to eat it)

Zebra snail- eats brown and green algae off the glass

I have yet to find a algae eater that will eat the hard green spot algae that forms on my glass and sometimes plants. In this case a razor blade works best.

In most cases you shouldn't even need an algae eater. I got my algae eaters beacuse i likes the fish and didn't have an algae problem at the time. Most algae can be fixed my light amounts, water changes making usre you dont' have too many nutrients in the water and Adding live plants help.

[Tetratastic]

My ottos eat brown and green algae. They are, IMO the best algae eaters out there. :)

[anonapersona]

MTS are good for brown algae.

Amano shrimp are good for green algae and work very hard on brush algae, too.

I wouldn't have a planted tank without otos and shrimp. MTS eat fish eggs I read so I'd have them in every tank that I wasn't hoping to get any fry from.

[ChilDawg]

Here's the note on availability of GAEs...they're widely available.

What did you wind up getting for the tank or, for our reference, what fish do you have in it now? We can help you find a good algae eater if you give us that info.

[Crocodylus]

I ended up with 5 ottos and 2 SAE (cause the LFS only had 2!! :mad: ) for a 40G planted tank. I still want to get at least 2 more SAE, but going to have to wait for the LFS to stock them again or try and find them on another....

btw, whats a GAE? :confused:

[ChilDawg]

Golden Algae Eater, also denoted as GCAE to represent the fact that they are variations upon the wild-type Chinese Algae Eater.

Many more abbreviations can be found on my website: glossary.aaquaria.com.

[Crocodylus]

cool a new acronym learned :D

One LFS had plenty of GCAE, but since it has all that bad publicity I will wait for more SAE :cool:

[ChilDawg]

Not just bad publicity...they're nasty, nasty fish once they lose the taste for algae and gain the taste for fish slime!