SAE’s good bye!
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Re: SAE's good bye!
Hi All!
Going back over all of the posts on this thread, the majority of them were not concerned with what species of Crossocheilus they have. In fact, my guess is that the ones who are tearing their hair out over the behavior of their "Siamese Algae Eaters" have some species of "Flying Fox" (Epalzeorhynchos spp.).
The "Flying Fox" is confused with the true algae eaters of genus Crossocheilus because all of these fishes have a strong horizontal band running the length of the body and on into the caudal area. One way to easily differentiate the "evil" Flying Foxes from the good guys is that the Fox has two pairs of barbels on the upper lip. And in fact it is related more to barbs than catfish. The "Siamese Algae Eater" has only one pair of barbels on the upper lip. Another characteristic that will fairly easily tell you if you have an algae eater or just a vegetative terrorist is that the algae eaters have transparent fins and the Fox doesn't.
Now as the aforementioned article explains, not all Crossocheilus are created equal! C. siamensis is the one that is so famous for its algae eating abilities. But as also said before, this is not the species that is usually sold as an SAE. There are several Crossocheilus species and of those only C. siamensis and C. langei can be relied upon to be good algae eaters.
This is why the article on Fishalicious is valuable. She does a pretty good job of differentiating between the various Crossocheilus. So, caveat emptor!
Cheers, g
Hi All!
Going back over all of the posts on this thread, the majority of them were not concerned with what species of Crossocheilus they have. In fact, my guess is that the ones who are tearing their hair out over the behavior of their "Siamese Algae Eaters" have some species of "Flying Fox" (Epalzeorhynchos spp.).
The "Flying Fox" is confused with the true algae eaters of genus Crossocheilus because all of these fishes have a strong horizontal band running the length of the body and on into the caudal area. One way to easily differentiate the "evil" Flying Foxes from the good guys is that the Fox has two pairs of barbels on the upper lip. And in fact it is related more to barbs than catfish. The "Siamese Algae Eater" has only one pair of barbels on the upper lip. Another characteristic that will fairly easily tell you if you have an algae eater or just a vegetative terrorist is that the algae eaters have transparent fins and the Fox doesn't.
Now as the aforementioned article explains, not all Crossocheilus are created equal!
C. siamensis is the one that is so famous for its algae eating abilities. But as also said before, this is not the species that is usually sold as an SAE. There are several Crossocheilus species and of those only C. siamensis and C. langei can be relied upon to be good algae eaters.This is why the article on Fishalicious is valuable. She does a pretty good job of differentiating between the various Crossocheilus. So, caveat emptor!
Cheers, g
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I personally have a 250L tank fully planted Dutch style and I placed 10 sae in it from the beginning. The tank is more than a year old with several types of plants.
In the tank I also have a few otos, around 10 Amano shrimps and a large number or red cherries as they keep multiplying.
I have seen one or two leaves from my ludwigia repens been eaten half way during this time, but nothing much. The sae tend to nimble on my dwarf hair grass a lot and keep it constantly low in height.
On my other tank which is 100L with rocks and wood I have 4 sae along side with a few otos and Amano. In that tank they have eating everything I try to grow, except from anubias and crypts. They devour my ludwigia repens, ludwigia super red, H-ra, stayrogen repens leaves, pogostemon erectus, everything.
They are sae as you can see the black strip going in the middle of their back fins. So I believe that yes they will eat several of your plants especially if you don't feed them on a dialy basis.
So it's not an easy decision to get them since it's not easy to take them out of a large tank with rocks, wood and plants. If you don't have bba I would say don't get sae. Get otos, get Amano shrimp.
Good luck to all
In the tank I also have a few otos, around 10 Amano shrimps and a large number or red cherries as they keep multiplying.
I have seen one or two leaves from my ludwigia repens been eaten half way during this time, but nothing much. The sae tend to nimble on my dwarf hair grass a lot and keep it constantly low in height.
On my other tank which is 100L with rocks and wood I have 4 sae along side with a few otos and Amano. In that tank they have eating everything I try to grow, except from anubias and crypts. They devour my ludwigia repens, ludwigia super red, H-ra, stayrogen repens leaves, pogostemon erectus, everything.
They are sae as you can see the black strip going in the middle of their back fins. So I believe that yes they will eat several of your plants especially if you don't feed them on a dialy basis.
So it's not an easy decision to get them since it's not easy to take them out of a large tank with rocks, wood and plants. If you don't have bba I would say don't get sae. Get otos, get Amano shrimp.
Good luck to all
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