Where are you getting your SAE's?

[plantling]

I've been getting brush algae and can't seem to eliminate it. I also can't seem to find any local stores that sell Siamese Algae Eaters. There's an online place that I'm looking at but the shipping is about 24 bucks, a bit steep for a few fish, imo. Where are you getting your SAE's?

 

[Dangerdoll]

I got mine I believe from Petsolutions.com. I also had a bad runin with bush algae. I put 3 of these guys in a 75 gallon tank and thought after a few weeks, oh well.... I guess they aren't the masters of brush after all.... until a few weeks later, that tank is stripped clean of the stuff, it happened vitually overnight. Good luck on your search, plantling. Once you find them, you won't regret it.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

To get SAEs to go after bba it is best to stop feeding the tank. While they are great alage eaters they are even better at eating any type of fish food.

 

[legendaryfrog]

Hmmmm.......perhaps you could ask your LFS to order them for you?

 

[plantling]

Hmmmm.......perhaps you could ask your LFS to order them for you?

I requested it, but it seems they have their own regular suppliers who do not carry SAE's. The city I live in isn't very big, so I may try the lfs closer to my hometown when I go to visit my mom.

I looked at Petsolutions website and they only have the flying fox and CAE. I'm tempted to just pay the $24.75 shipping fee for this site:
http://www.****************/catalog_pages/scavengers/scavengers.htm#algaeeaters

 

[Dangerdoll]

I think that's what I ended up doing after months of waiting for them to come around here. The algae got so annoying to me that I decided the cost was worth it. Expensive fish but they do a good job

 

[plantling]

Thanks, DD. I think they'll be worth it too if they rid me of the brush algae problem.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

i have seen them around me at the lfs. i would call around ask all the ones in your area.

 

[Barbie]

You might try dosing with Flourish Excel first. If you dose the "beginning" dose and it doesn't slightly cloud the tank and turn the algae funny colors, go ahead and dose it again the next day with the same dose. That will usually completely kill the bba. It will also melt your vals some, but they tend to come back bigger and tougher than before.

Other fish that will eat BBA are rosy barbs, florida flag fish (I don't recommend these hateful little buggers), amano shrimp, and believe it or not, Syno. petricola "dwarf" (they've recently been reclassified but I can't remember to what!).

The excel is basically a liquid source of carbon that allows the plants to utilize all the nutrients and starve out the algae. There is also some algaecide effect from it that seems to work great. Be careful to not overdose too far or you'll stress your fish badly.

Barbie