BBA vs SAE vs Rosy Barb

I agree, you couldn't have that many algae eaters in a 40G. I'm worried with just two in the 75G, I hadn't initially planned on adding two 6" fish. Just have to wait and see what happens as they continue to grow. I've been amazed at how close my two seem. If I see one in the tank without the other right there with it, it's highly unusual and right away I think one died.
 
I never found Rosy Barbs to eat BBA. I had 5 of them during a huge bloom of it and they never even looked at it. First time I've heard of that. As for the SAEs, they honestly didn't touch it either :-/ I ended up throwing away the plants it grew on, removed the driftwood it grew on, and started adding faster growing plants. That seemed to prevent new growth.

As far as SAEs being aggresive with each other, I've never seen this. They are a social fish and should be kept in a group. I have 5...well 4 after a jumping incident this weekend :-( They're constant companions, moving as a whole group from one plant to the next, and I have a mix of both genders. It' really a bad idea to buy fish jsut to eat algae. And like I said, those SAEs belong in a happy group with plenty of room to swim and play together.
 
jpappy789 said:
Are you absolutely, 100% positive they are TRUE SAE's and not an impostor species? I have a flying fox, and although it does a decent job with some other types of algae, it wont touch BBA like a SAE will.
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are you asking me or the original poster? As for me, I'm not going to say I'm absolutely 100% sure because how could I possibly be with the amount of confusion out there regarding this species? I've done a lot of reading about it and can say that I feel 98% absolutely sure they are TRUE SAE's. In my earlier post, when I said they didn't touch it, that was an exaggeration. They did eat at it, but not enough to make a noticable dent. It still consumed my wood, anubias and even grew on the glass. I would watch them eat at it and then swim away and there would be no visible difference. removing the items it attached to was what ultimately got rid of it.

and these days, they prefer sinking pellets and flakes anyway. If I ended up with another outbreak of BBA, I'd need to trade them in for younger models willing to work for food! LOL
 
Mainly the OP ;)

I've not heard of SAE's going straight to flakes when given the opportunity to munch on BBA, unless that was what they were fed exclusively at the store. And seeing as the stores are 99% of the time incorrect on the ID (many experienced fish keepers are still unsure after a few looks, heck I can never tell the differences without a few minutes of studying pictures) I would guess that the OP ended up with a different species than "C. siamensis."

Debbi (pinkertd) has a great info and ID'ing thread here with pics and all. I suggest you check it out Flavius.
 
jpappy789 said:
Mainly the OP ;)
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:duh: oopsy!

anyway I agree that the odds are very high, flavius, that you got your hands on flying foxes, or false SAEs. Just the other day they had some selling at my LFS that they had marked "SAE" with "(siamese algae eater fox)" in small print underneath.

IME with BBA, once it's in the tank it grows on everything, rocks, wood, glass, etc. you should nip it in the bud NOW by removing anything that has it on it, and make some changes to your tank. IT's more prevelant in low-teck tanks, on slow growing plants. get some floaters and some sort of hygro (fast stems) if you don't already have any. Then start dosing nitrate/potassium into the tank. BBA thrives on phosphorus. When you're out of nitrates, the plants stop consuming food and BBA takes over. my guess is your water probably has high phosphorus levels out of the tap. You can also try some phosphorus removing filter media and see if that helps.
 
Very difficult to I.D. agreed. I went into the local Pet Smart looking for SAE's and they had Chineese algea eaters. When I asked the manager if they had true SAE's she told me there was no difference. Only a couple of inches, some coloration, and some serious agression issuses, or so i've read. I've found true ones here in my trusted mom 'n pop lfs, at least I'm pretty sure.
 
that reminds me of when I got one of my SAEs at a petco. He was the only one, no tag, nothing. My friend and I were both like OMG how did PETCO get an SAE? we ran down the list of physical attributes and decided yes, it was genuine. I asked the gal "how much for that siamese algae eater?" and she said "what? there is no siamese algae eater...only a chinese algae eater. That's an Otto" "ohhhh okay....how much for that ott?" got him for $2 :-)
 
I have had 2 saes together for now around 6 years and have never once noticed a split fin or missing scale. They are almost certainly different sexes though, so that might play a role in it. They can also clear a football sized chunk of java fern of bba over night.
 
I have BBA in my 20L planted tank. I added 3 rosy's, and they do seem to mow it down to a shorter length. I have witnessed them eat longer strands of BBA. Rosy's will keep it trimmed. I spoke to a person who works in the local fish shop in my town, and she told me she has had problems with BBA in all of her tanks with driftwood. I like to keep driftwood in my tank, esp because i have a little bristlenose pleco and barbs, which like a slightly acidic Ph.
 
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