Siamese Algae Eater (SAE) questions

[jaysen]

my saes are slightly aggressive towards each other. the dominant and largest one will chase the others away from the cucumber i leave in the tank. they dont suck on any fish i have... and i have a lot of them ranging from an a quarter inch to 12 inches. then again, they dont really suck either, rather they nibble on things. they dont have a "sucker mouth". maybe the saes you have are very hungry or a more aggressive type than what we commonly see. either way i have no bba or staghorn algae, and they make an amazing schooling display.

 

[Carla G]

I was trying to get some Oto's which are very hard to come by in Australia. Every store tries to sell you pleco's instead. Or worse still, sucking catfish. Then the LFS guy said he had some "real flying fox" and they would eat algae of all types and were non aggressive and not too huge. So I went home to research. I just read this thread and a few other sites and went back to the store. Sure enough, they were Siamese Algae Eaters, so I brought the three of them home. They are extremely well behaved fish. They don't bother anyone, not even the 1/2 inch platy fry. One is very shy and hides a lot. The other two are out and about most of the time, usually together and nibbling on algae. So far I am very pleased with them.

 

[Carla G]

Well, eleven days on my algae eaters are double the size they were when they arrived! Just can't believe anything can grow that fast. They are doing a great job on the algae on the plants and the driftwood is polished. Only a tiny nibble at the brown algae on the glass though. Maybe they will get around to it.

They are completely non aggressive to other fish. Even the 1/2 inch platy fry swims past their nose totally unconcerned and the SAE don't even blink, they just continue nibbling algae.

 

[Lupin]

Cool update, Carla. Pics?

 

[vanillarum]

Until a week ago I had 7 SAEs in my tank. I happened to notice a post on the boards for someone looking for SAEs, so I PM''d them. Turns out she lives in the next town ! She was looking for 2, so I gave them to her. (Now I'm less overstocked than I was !) Got an e-mail from her shortly after that saying that they had done a job on her BBA overnite ! And, as far as aggressive, I say not at all. Active ? Very ! Playful ? Yes. Aggressive ? Not at all, never. Good luck.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

This sticky is in the wrong forum. The SAE is an algae eating Cypranid (Barb) and is not a bottom feeder. The thread would even be better placed in the planted tank area than here.

 

[Slyther83]

Once mine reached around 5-6" in length, it began turning on the other fish in the tank. They became quite aggressive toward each other, and other fish. Was being kept in a 75g w/ a few 2-3" community fish.

...I found its fossilized skeleton behind my tank months later (apparently it jumped out where my hang on filter trickles in).

 

[msjinkzd]

Anybody keep these guys with shrimp?

 

[Dangerdoll]

I do, Jinkz! they are fine together.... I guess as long as there is some cover for the babies to cling to, because I would assume most if not all fish are predatory by nature for miniscule shrimps

but I have cherries and SAE's in my 75 gallon and all are ok and the cherries are constantly building up their little colony.

 

[saram521]

Now I wanna keep some of these guys! I've always loved the look of flying foxes, but have heard they can be aggressive towards other tankmates. SAE's seem like a perfect substitute though!