In defense of chinese algae eaters

[ruben]

I've been looking for sae's for sometime but never been able to find them, so I bought 3 chinese algae eaters and a flying fox 10 days ago.
Initially they didn't like the tank since I use a DIY CO2 and they were gasping for air, that lasted about 4 days.
I got some directions in this forum regarding fertilization to deal with my algae eternal problem, well last Friday the plants were 75% clean of algae .
The flying fox ate a little but all the credit goes for the chinese. They´re doing an excellent job, so far I haven't seen any agression towards other fish, they don't like to be really close one to the other but "fights" have been just a touch and go.
they have been eating my red algae all day long and rest at night on the plants.
I check in 10 lfs in the city and they all carry the same kind of algae eaters, some have a black stripe along the body and some have some kind of checkers, lately I discover that this is the same fish and the shape of the stripe is changing during the day, maybe is related to dominancy but I'm still not sure.
The 3 fishes I got are about 4 cms long, they're very cheap here at about 70 cents each, the flying fox was about 4 dollars.
So it was a very small invest to see my plants going really clean for the first time in months. I hope that in the long run the situation imprves even more and that remaining 25% of algae is gone or at least diminish even more

[Tempest]

Heehees... I have the golden version of the CAE.. This poor fish is probably three years old now and has done duty in every tank I own. It now resides in my sister's 20 gallon tetra tank and keeps it spotless except for the smaller leaves it can't perch on. It's about 4 inches long now so they don't grow too fast. The most aggression I have seen is when some other fish gets near it's zuchinni. :D From what I have read the CAE's vary a lot in temprament so you do take some risk.

[Must4ng s4lly]

Way to go! I think CAE's are great too! i have four, one is about five inches, and they eat most of the algae in my 58 gal. The Flying Fox eats all the frozen foods I put in for the others and he is NO good ;)

The CAE's chase each other sometimes but they never hurt each other or chase other fish. They are always busy on the plants, gravel, and glass too.

[TKOS]

My flying fox is doing a great job of keeping my tank low in the algae department.

I think a lot of the CAE's bad traits don't really kick in until they get older and start to grow upwards of 10 inches long.

[dethjam316]

Originally posted by TKOS
My flying fox is doing a great job of keeping my tank low in the algae department.

I think a lot of the CAE's bad traits don't really kick in until they get older and start to grow upwards of 10 inches long. you said it, tkos. mine eats algae very well, but based on my father's experience...once mine hits 5 or 6 inches, i wouldn't be surprised if this ceased in favor of territoriality or aggressive behavior.

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by dethjam316
...once mine hits 5 or 6 inches, i wouldn't be surprised if this ceased in favor of territoriality or aggressive behavior. I had one smaller than that and it started going aggressive and didn't do much at all with algae. I don't think I will try them again. Too bad SAE's are so hard to find down here..

[Fedorov]

I have had the SAE and they have just eaten the fish good , while my ottos and cae got fat on algae . When the cae get to mean ,I just put them in my Dempsey tank.