Will Chinese Algae Eaters EAT other fish?

ILOVEBETTAS

It's Cory Lover's cat!
I know they can be aggressive, but someone told me they would EAT other fish! I thought they were herbivores... that's what it says at liveaquaria.com.
Is this true?
 
live aquaria isnt always accurate on the profiles.

anyways, i personally havent seen them eat a fish, but they can and do latch on to flat bodied fish and suck the scales off. i have also experienced them getting very territorial
 
Most CAE start as herbivores and as they get older they stop eating algae and prey on other fish. What they do is they suck the fish's slim and scales off until they die, then it the dead body as it decays and gets softer.
 
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Hi,

I never have heard of them eating other fish. I've heard of them sucking onto other fish, but mine has never done that and he likes his algae and not body slime :).

Cory Lover
 
fballguy said:
Most CAE start as herbivores and as they get older they stop eating algae and prey on other fish. What they do is they suck the fish's slim and scales off until they die, then it the dead body as it decays and gets softer.
Bingo! I've seen it happen:(
 
Yup, me too! A good indicator of their change in food preferences is when you mysteriously start missing the smallest fish in your tank every night. I started out with 13 harlequin rasboras, and it took me until I was down to 4 to actually catch him at it. I didn't want to believe it was him, but since there were no dead bodies, no signs of disease, I knew "something fishy" was going on.
 
my algae eater is as harmless as a phone book! although he dosent eat much of the alagee on the drift wood so from my experience if u keep getting enough algae wafers u wiill be perfect, also when he's introduced at a young age he will grow a relationship with the fish over time. most are deadly 2 fish when introduced at 4 inches. :clap:
 
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