my chinese algae eater isnt eating wafers

[Jan]

I have the same problem. Lazy chinese algea eater somehow gets bigger and bigger, but eats less and less algae. he doesn't bug my rosy barbs much though, their too fast for him.

 

[nathalie1977]

I don't think I like reading that these fish get aggressive as they age. It may be the reason my panda cories (3) died suddenly. Why don't the pet stores tell you this info? And 20 inches?? I'm in trouble if that's the case. I'm sorry I didn't research it better before I bought him b/c every now and then I see him "go after" another fish in my tank but it seems quick so I don't think much of it until I read this info. Mine is almost 4 inches and doesn't eat the wafers either and I've had him 7 months now. He seems to eat food that falls to the floor. I'm going to keep a close eye on him now to make sure he isn't causing too much trouble in my tank. It's a shame b/c they are cool looking.

The problem is a lot of people don't know the difference between a SAE and a CAE. The SAE (Siamese) is a great Algae Eater... the Chinese isn't. I didn't know this until my fish started disappearing too. I ended up putting it to sleep.

As an alternative, since I couldn't find any SAE's, I got a flying fox. Very, very cool looking fish, and I always see it eating algae. It's also known as a "fake" SAE. I have read that the flying fox can get aggressive later though, but so far I haven't had any problems.