overated siamese algae eaters

I have 4 siamese algae eaters and they are cool fish and they grew very fast and will graze on my hands when im vacuuming the aquarium. Everywhere you read says they are one of the best if not the best algae eating fish. Mine however i never see eating algae at all only thing i ever see them eat is the food i feed my other fish or the cucumber i put in there every so often. In fact my chinese algae eater eats way more algae then they do though hes a pain every now and then.

How big is he??

If you want a fish that will always eat algae and prefers it over any thing else you need to get a rubber lip pleco, they stay small and are very docile.

Most 'algae eaters' will eat other food if they can, they just get lazy over time.

istrober wrote:

How big is he??

4 inches now

You might not have a true SAE then. There are 2 other fish that look just like them but are awful when it comes to cleaning. I had a Flying fox very cool but did not get the job done. They look like a more colorful SAE same size and shape. Then there is the False SAE that look almost exactly the same at the true but the line does not got in the the tail.

Here is some great info. With photos on these fish.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/saes.htm

The true sae are not easy to find and are a bit rare compared to the flying fox.

snowflake311 wrote:

You might not have a true SAE then. There are 2 other fish that look just like them but are awful when it comes to cleaning. I had a Flying fox very cool but did not get the job done. They look like a more colorful SAE same size and shape. Then there is the False SAE that look almost exactly the same at the true but the line does not got in the the tail.

Here is some great info. With photos on these fish.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/saes.htm

The true sae are not easy to find and are a bit rare compared to the flying fox.

I got them online from live aquaria the line does go all the way to the end of the tail I had one jump out of the aquarium onto the floor