could i possibly add a trio of Siamese Algae Eaters?

kelly82

kelly82

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Jun 1, 2007
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Lincolnshire, UK
my 180 is already i think at stocking, im not 100% sure, its lovely and busy and the parameters just before water change each week usually are nitrites 0, ammonia 0, nitrates 30, p.h 8.0. i change 30-40% weekly, depending on how much of a gravel vac i do.

im looking to possibly get 3 algae eaters, the silver ones with the black stripe, as i have a fair amount of algae in the tank and ive heard they are great of eating it and also ok with live plants. i do tend to overfeed the tank to get food down to the glo-lights and cories before the barbs eat it all, which i think is why i have the algae, it doesnt really bother me to be honest, i clean it off the front glass, but i like it growing in the driftwood, but obviously its growing on some of my slower growing plants too which is hindering their growth further. also hubby hates seeing the algae,says it looks like i dont care for the tank :nono: 3 hours a week on water changes alone proves otherwise :p:

anyway, what do you think, could i get away with adding 3 with my current stocking in my signature? theres possibly a few less fish than in the sig but its about right, they take a lot of counting in this tank-thanks for reading.
 
I don't think SAEs are that great at algae eating, mine prefer flakes & any other kind of food. They graze some algae but don't get rid of any that I have or had. The bigger they get the less algae they eat.

I added a small BN plec & I clean the glass a bit less but still have anubias with diatoms. There are/were otos in there too. Some people have good luck using either Excel or hydrogen peroxide squirted on the algae, I haven't tried them.
 
While you have a good number of fish, it appears that most of them are small. I would suggest limit the algae eaters to only 2. Be sure to get true SAE's.....there's only one that will really eat algae. I have two of them, and while they do eat everything and anything else that goes into that tank, including crushed snails and zuchinni, they also eat algae just perfectly. I couple of times I've had a leaf from my 36" crypt start to die, but the surface of it was right up against the light in my 55 gallon, so when I broke the leaf off of the plant, I placed in in the SAE tank and they thoroughly enjoyed every weird growing thing on those leaves! They cleaned the leaf spic n span!
 
I agree that getting true SAE's is important if you want any algae work to be done...I am 99% sure I have an imposter species (yet no clue eaxactly which one) and its far too lazy. Half the time it just sits on my Rena spray bar and wait for me to feed the rest of the fish...:rolleyes:
 
I think you have room for the SAE's and agree that you should look for true SAEs. We have 3 in a planted 120 and they graze constantly. They are great algae eaters IME. :)
 
:thumbsup: ok, so time to try to figure the differences between the true ones and the false ones, im looking for -black stripe on silver body which extends through the tail, pointed face, black patch underneath??? would this definately give me a true SAE?
 
i believe the black patch is the kicker. i'd have to say you got it.

EDIT: if you are overfeeding to feed slower or bottom feeders they can definitely compound that problem. they are fast and relish a free treat they don't have to work for. it'll be more competition for food and you may feel you have to compensate. they will eat the algae pretty well if they're not overfed though.
 
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