Siamese Algae Eater (SAE) questions

jaysen said:
you sure it isnt a flying fox? i made that mistake. they are identical to the sae except for yellowish coloration on their fins.
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Well the difference with the fins from the comparison on The Krib http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/ is that the FF has dark colorations on the fins. The other distinguishing feature is the FF has two sets of barbels, mine all have just one set.

Lupin- there was a similar thread on loaches.com about the yellow finned SAE's a while ago you might have seen them there.

Here is a pic of my guys that definitely have yellow fins:



They weren't always so yellow... in fact I didn't even notice this for like a year after I bought them, and I studied them really hard in the lfs and also in my tank for a while to make sure they were infact true SAE's since they were [mis]labeled Epalzeorhynchus kalopterus at the LFS (Flying Fox). Here is an earlier shot of them http://tristan.homelinux.net/fish/siamese1.JPG and there really isnt any yellow visible in the fins.

And here is a 4MB WMV movie clip http://tristan.homelinux.net/fish/movies/sae.wmv showing them swimming around, again before they showed any yellow in their fins. Its taken after a 50% water change and these guys always schooled together really well right after that, they normally dont school quite so tightly.
 
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are you feeding them anything that may affect color? i think they are really cool and only hope mine look the same when they get older. i feed my tank red color enhancers but that only affects certain fish.
 
I remember the loaches.com sae/false discussion. There are some other, less frequently seen crossichielus (sp) species. I think there's a Dutch or German site with pics of some of them.
Tristan, your fish are lovely! They may be one of the "others", no dark edges to the scales above the lateral line & the face seems lighter too. I have a large sae that has some slight color in the fins as it's grown but nothing like yours. All of mine are on dark substrates.
 
jaysen - I think at least one type of food I feed them says its 'color enhancing' but they get a pretty wide variety of food.

Lupin - thanks :)

fishorama - Its possible these might be a variant, IDK. in any case, they get along well and seem to constantly be nibbling at algae. As for the dark edges to the scales - one thing I have noticed is that my guy's color does change with mood a bit. The photo above was taken the first day I put them in my new tank and the one on the top is much lighter colored than normal. Maybe I'll try to get another pic that might show the upper scales better, but no guarantee that will happen anytime soon. And that is the only with with the light face as well... dont know if that means anyhting or if he smashed up against the glass or something in the new tank - never noticed it before the move.
 
Ok, here is a [crappy] pic but you can see the color of the scales better. Sorry for the confusion with the first pic they really do have dark edges on the scales, just the one was being a bit pale when I took the pic plus the flash tends to wash things out.

sae3_400.JPG
 
Very true - when I first got mine they were barely longer than 1" and about the diameter of a pin... looked like all silver with a tiny black stripe. Very hard to tell the suttle differences between the other varieties. Its not till they mature a bit that the upper part of the body begines to darken it seems, didnt take long, but still if you get them very young its hard to tell.
 
HI There
Can't open any of the links, nor see the pictures you hae posted...
Here is a picture of a small school of mine. The fins are clear, but a little yellowish. The black stripe varies in thickness, one has a quite thick one, most others are more 'normal'.
The overall colour is grey, wit some yelow, best seen at te 'blurred' ones.
They school all the time, grase the pant matter all the time.

Have never seen 'false' SAE, of FF...

aDSC_6159.JPG
 
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