Oto vs. CAE

im usually oddman out on this topic because i can only reply from my own experience. i never have been able to keep ottos successfully in any of my tanks, even when buying them from different LFS's. i have had excellent success with CAE's though. when i had brown algea outbreaks, i would put them in the affected tank and they would totally destroy it within a few days. green algea on the other hand has been a different story. i havent had problems with aggression(yet... knock on wood).

again, this could be the exception to the rule. good luck with either.
 
The way I used to tell them apart was behavior and the angle of the mouth. The SAE has its mouth on the front, so it does not attach itself to what it is eating in the same way, but skims across, whereas the otos tend to attach to things.

Plus, whenever I put food in the tank, the SAEs go after it instead of eating algae, while the otos just go about their business.
 
now wait a minute. Im confused

I thought SAE were the ones that get large and aggressive.

CAE were safe and reccomended because of thier hardiness in comparison with Otos.

Kit foxes were the ones that looked similar to the CAE but were useless (unless you like looking at them).

Otos were the best cleaners but are fragile.

Can someone please clarify this
thanks
 
maaltan said:
now wait a minute. Im confused

I thought SAE were the ones that get large and aggressive.

CAE were safe and reccomended because of thier hardiness in comparison with Otos.

Kit foxes were the ones that looked similar to the CAE but were useless (unless you like looking at them).

Otos were the best cleaners but are fragile.

Can someone please clarify this
thanks
Click to expand...
Yep, you are confused.
Switch "CAE" with the "SAE" and vice versa, and it makes sense.
You got "CAE" and "SAE" backwards.
 
ahh yes .. siamese good ..chinese bad. I knew that... teach me to read fourms before coffee :)
 
*sigh*

Regarding the Otos sucking on other fish.... yes, mine do that sometimes. Last night, one of them was 'cleaning' my dwarf frog. I had CAEs once. They do a pretty good job on algae when they are very young. But once they get to be more than 3 inches or so, they get more aggressive and attack other fish. I have a Siamese algae eater.... well, an algae shark.... and he has nibbled on other fish too.

I think if they are kept well-fed, they will leave the other fish alone. It's just that my algae eaters are so efficient that they run out of algae sometimes.
 
Yeah, I've noticed my otos will nibble on the corys every once in a while.
This happens especially when it's feeding time, and it's feeding frenzy on the bottom.
The otos seem to be taking to the algae wafers pretty good now.
 
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