I purchased my Siamese Algae Eater because she was aggressively cleaning the driftwood in her display tank - after I purchased her and brought her home, she stopped cleaning. Now she's about two inches bigger - eats flakes exclusively and any live food fed to my other fish - and does not even touch the hair algae in one of my tanks. She is extremely territorial (especially during feeding time) and is a total bully. I regret getting her but I've bonded to her sassy self. But yes, ultimately, my SAE has done nada for the algae. Nothing. Good luck with yours.
i feed mine like there's no tomorrow and they still eat algae. they only stop eating to play with each other or to rest on a leaf or piece of hardscape. anyone who's sae refuses to eat algae should definitely check to be sure they're crossecheilus langei for sure imo. i have mine in with shrimp and male guppies and they bother nobody. the only problem i've ever had with them was when i had a red tail shark and it was picking on them. one of my guys sustained an injury from jumping out of his temp tank during a redo. the shark tried to single him out and my other guy got between them enough to stress the shark to eventual death. it was actually kinda cute seeing them stick together. never an issue before or after... and the red tail was the actual culprit. i should have known my tank was not big enough for them to co-exist, but i didn't and there were no signs before the injury.
one thing i will say is they don't prefer bba. if there's another option they'll avoid it altogether.
there are lots of imitators that are identical almost and have bad habits so checking for the belly spot is crucial.
