SAE sighting in NYC

carpguy

carpguy

lots of small fish
Jul 15, 2002
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Just wanted to give an alert. I was in New World Aquarium (38th & 3rd) this afternoon looking for plants when I came across a tank full of juvenile SAEs. There must have been about two dozen. $2.99 per or 3 for $8. I took two, there are a bunch left. They're only about an inch and a bit long, smaller than any of my rasbora. They were a little pale in the store and even paler after their subway ride. After 3 hours in the tank their color has come back and I'm just about positive they are little SAEs. They have been working furiously ever since they went tankside.

They have them labeled as "Siamensis Flying Fox". This is the classic article on IDing them. Here is another nice site with a good guide for the ID (scroll down). Either make nice intros if you're not familiar with them.

EDIT: Ozone -- I checked, no Kribs. They did have some really beautiful Blue Rams, if anyone is interested.
 
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SAE in NYC

Thanks for looking out. I'm surpise that they miss label them as Flying fox. But I guess at $2.99 they could be SAE at that size, but again it's New World Aquarium their prices are high. They have some large SAE in the big corner display tank that are not for sale.
Excellent find if it's SAE since they are hard to find in NYC. They have them at 1"-2" at Aquatic Treasure in Woodhaven Blvd, but for $6 each. What a rip....!!!!
If you run out of food , I have BBA to offer...lol....
I would like to pick some up at that price, but parking there is hard.
 
Truly mad little fish. They look small next to the dwarf barbs. They spent most of the evening working the glass and chasing each other around in circles.

As far as the name bit goes. Aquarium Fish by Dick Mills has them as Siamese Flying Fox, but the picture looks wrong. Barron's Barbs Aquarium has the right picture above a caption that says "The Flying Fox (crossocheilus siamensis) is a legendary algae eater". The very great Fishbase.org has crossocheilus siamnesis as the Siamese Alga Eater. New World seems to like to mix scientific and common names together. I saw a "True Siamensis" at Absolutely Fish in Clifton last week that I think was actually the False Siamensis -- no stripe in the tail at all.

I was a little worried about my ID when I first got them into the tank, but I'm just about positive now that their full color has come back (darker than in the store). Black goes back into the tail but not strongly, the fins are still clear even though the color is back, the fins on top seem to have dark edges now that the color is up.
 
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