Fish Profile: Siamese Algae Eaters

[John N.]

Please share your comments on Aziz Dhanani's article, Siamese Algae Eaters.



-John N.

[Anti-Pjerrot]

I think its worth to mention that they eradicate moss as good as algae. They will eat the fresh shots on all the moss within days, leavin a bare string left.

So it you want to grow moss - dont do it with SAE in the tank.

I have also seen my SAEs eat cladophora sp. algae, that are painstakingly impossible to get rid of.

[John N.]

I've seen SAE's pick at the Beard Algae in my tank, but they never consumed all of it. Perhaps I'll try feeding them less fish food and see if they will start working on it.

I should also mention that it's completely true that SAE's a wild jumpers. I found two crusted on the carpet a long while back...and I know I didn't put them there.

-John N.

[KDahlin]

It's too bad they get so big; I have a 55 gallon tank stocked with dwarf cichlids and I don't want my biggest fish being an algae eater.

[Park]

Quote from the article : "...Having more than one real Siamese algae eater in the same tank is also not recommended as males are known to behave aggressively towards one another in staking out territory."

I thought that they ought go more than one together?

Quote from http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/: "...It is an active and fast swimmer, which thrives best in schools but can also be kept alone or in pairs."

I've always been told to keep them 5 or more together...? My school of SAE is doing fine, although I've more than one male... That's my experience!

[John N.]

It probably refers to not having an all male tank of SAEs. You DO want to keep the SAEs in schools. When they're happy, algae isn't.

-John N.

[10gallontank]

I have heard of people havind bad luck with them. As they get older they rely more on the body slime of slower moving fish ie. discus than algae.

Chris

[zebrapl3co]

I hope you realize that the fish in this picture is not a SAE but rather a false SAE ...

[Al G. Begone]

Yeah, that picture is of a flying fox.
SAE's have black outlines on the scales, transparent fins, and the top and bottom have total contrast from the stripe in the middle.
You can't see it in this photo, but flying foxes have one more set of barbels than the SAE's.

[Dan Pellegrini]

I strongly discourage everyone I know from getting SAEs. I have had many and don't think that the pros outweigh the cons. They will not fix your algae problems.

PROS -
- Rumored to eat BBA (never seen them do much to large quantities) - they will eat dead BBA, after a spot treatment, but so will any shrimp you might have
- Will eat other algae in the tank (IF they can't find better food)

CONS -
- They prefer whatever you are feeding your other fish and will eat that before starting on your algae
- They also tend to prefer mosses and fine leaf plants like Mayaca and R Wallichii to algae, and can devastate these and similar plants.
- They get very large and can be aggressive when older
- They all but stop eating algae with age
- They are not attractive fish (IMO)
- They are extremely difficult to catch when you want to remove them

Here is an example of them starting on some Rotala Wallichii:



And here is some video and shots of what they will do to mosses:

http://www.aquamoss.net/Articles/Sia...uatic-Moss.htm

[Dan Pellegrini]

This is still the best ID explanation I have seen on the web. They are pretty easy to ID once you have had one or two of them:

[Al G. Begone]

Yikes, I need to up my shrimp count and loose these SAE's of mine.

[soundtweakers]

Just want to share my experience with SAEs. I've had them growing well into maturity in my discus tank, at one point they were displaying mating rituals but no eggs was ever found. I lost all three of them all at once when my heater failed and raised my tank to 95F few month ago.

They did eat whatever I fed my discus, they were crazy about blood worms. I thought they didn't do much algae control because they're always the first to attack the food. But I realize I might be wrong "ONE WEEK" after they were gone. Hair algae started to appear and eventually took over all of my plants and driftwood and even on the gravel.

The only thing negative I would say about them is that they spook the heck out of my discus when they(discus) were young. And also you can never catch them without destroying half of your aquascape. I do miss them.