True SAE? ID please!

[yonsu]

I bought these guys to control the BBA in my tank.. so far they haven't helped at all. Not sure if it's because they are content eating other foods or because they are not the real deal. Sorry about the quality.. I don't have the skills nor high technology of others.. =X Tried my best! Thanks in advance!

 

[maddie]

they look the same as mine, and mine eat the algae, however if you do feed your other fish a decent amount then the SAE will just eat that instead.. when i got my new one to put in my little tank we had to feed the tank less then half just to get the SAE to start eating the algae and not the bloodworms. when they get big they are also pretty useless my big one just chills with my loaches now.

 

[tackful]

They look just like mine as well, with the black stripe continuing right through the tail fin. At 3 yrs old mine is a full 6" long and very lazy.

 

[nikond70s]

yup, true sae's. and as others mention. they are very lazy and dont do there jobs when they get older.

 

[modri rogatec]

Well they are one of the species that is sold under true SAE - there are more of those...Check out this link, the last 3 species:

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/kb.php?t=ps&s=sae

There are even more varieties. For example mine have yellowish fins so I believe the to be C.citripinnis

Some eat bearded algae more than others...

 

[gagaliya]

cant tell clearly but it does seem to be true sae, check for 2 things 1) the black strip extends to the transparent part of the tail 2) the black strip is zigzag on the body and not a smooth line.

true sae will never perform on the same level as oto or nerite snails. They are in the same group as cherry red shrimp and should be used as secondary, not primary algae control. And just a cool fish to have.

If you want pure algae control, get nerite snails and oto. But be warned oto are so efficient your tank will be out of algae in a few weeks max then it's a lot of trouble to feed them or risk them starving to death. I ended up giving the oto to a lfs because it was just too much work to feed them after the tank is cleaned.

Now i just have nerite snails (my all time favorite algae killer), cherry red shrimps, and true sae, and the biocube remains spotless.

 

[pinkertd]

If they are true SAE's they will have a small dark spot on their bellies as shown in this pic. It may not be this large. Mine have a smaller dark area, but it's been there since they were babies and they are full grown now.

 

[angyles]

I'm not sure where it went, but there used to be a sticky somewhere around here that discussed 'true SAEs' and that there several different varieties that were all considered 'true.' IT's not the sticky that's currently posted in the bottom feeders section so I'm not sure where it went. Anyway, It showed that the BEST of the different varieties has the dark spot on the belly as pinkertd shows, but the others do not have that dark spot and are still considered 'true.' The one with the dark spot was the most effective towards BBA and seemed to enjoy algae more for it's entire life, if I remember right.

Those are what we would all commonly consider 'true SAE's,' but which specific species is hard to tell without seeing some tummy action.

Man...does anyone know what happened to that sticky? It was great!

 

[angyles]

found it!

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192330&highlight=SAE

What I get from this thread is there really isn't a 'TRUE SAE' there's jsut a variety of imposters so we all hope to get the BEST imposter we can, which is the one with the dark spot; Crossocheilus langei

 

[dundadundun]

:thm:

it's the spot that counts!

and they do eat algae when they're older. dang things eat all day... everything they can get to. there is no substitute! got a bit of hair algae from a lighting upgrade and they kept it in check till i could level things out... and they're full grown. otos, nerites and rcs will never compare in my book unless you've got lots of them. keep in mind any algae grazer will need to be supplemented at some point in time. nerites would be somewhat the exception to that rule as they're real picky about only eating algae but that makes them hard to supplement once you get your tank balanced ime.