About SAE

[Justikanz]

Hmm... I think I noticed something... I used to have a small group of SAEs, they fought and now 2 remained. Interesting thing is, one of the fish is about an inch bigger than the other. More interesting thing is, I observed the same thing in many tanks... 2 SAEs, one bigger than the other...

Now I am wondering, is it a growth hormone thing? Or is it a pair thing? Can SAEs be successfully be kept in a group? Mine are kept in a 4ft tank... Not big enough?

I tot mine is a couple... There was once the silver/white part turned almost yellow/gold in colour and they were chasing each other around macham like courting behaviour before spawning... Didn't get to see what happened, though... Now there are always staying by each other's side and I never get to see the yellow/gold colouration again...

Anyone can shed some light on the SAE?

[Emg]

I have never owned one, but would like to...lol...I have a tank with some hair algae I'd like one to take care of...

but, eveyrthing I've read online about them says that they don't do well in a group and it's best to keep just one in a tank...unless it's a very large tank...which none of mine are....

I did read in another forum about this fella who had his SAE spawn in his tank. That is an accomplishment for sure since I think he's the only one I have ever heard of that managed to do that ! He had a pic of a little baby SAE to prove it. Folks were telling him to write all his parameters down and anything about the tank he could remember so that others could try to duplicate the same water quality and parameters. All SAEs that you buy in the stores are wild caught because breeding them in captivity hasn't been successful...except for this one instance that I know of..

[vinz]

Ummm.. you sure you got SAEs? In my experience, they never fight till death. Most people don't even consider it as fighting. Most times they just chase each other around a bit or have short show downs which result in nothing but some scale lost.

Even in pairs, I've never seen them compete till the point where one is significantly smaller then the other.

SAE's do better in large groups, IMO/IME. They need playmates.

[Justikanz]

Hmm... Can post pictures of true SAEs and Flying foxes so we can compare? All literature always just explain the differences but never show pictures... Confusing leh...

[Emg]

Here's a link to a site with a good pic of a siames algae eater..

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/sae.htm

And here's a good site with a comparison of the different species that folks get them confused with...

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

[vinz]

See:
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=10274
http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/

Once you'ce identified a real SAE, you'll never get it wrong again.

Key signs for me:
- Black stripe all the way from tip nose to the edge of the tail. I.e. the black stripe goes rigth through the tail.
- The black strip does not have straight edges. The edges of the strip is zig-zagged (or saw toothed) like it's made up of black scales. Whereas, other fishes commonly mistaken to be SAE, like the flying fox, the egdes are straight, like the line was painted onto the fish. Quite evident in the pictures posted by HWChoy in the first link.
- No gold stripe at all.
- The head shape. That alone eliminates many fishes commonly mistaken for SAE. They do NOT have a "sucker" mouth.

[Justikanz]

Hmm... Need to go home and check... First look tells me it might not be a SAE afterall! Cannot recall the black stripe going all the way to the edge of the tail... *Cross fingers*...

[celticfish]

EMG,
if its not too much trouble could you post the link of the guy who posted the sae breeding? thanks!
celticfish

[Emg]

Lol....yeah sure...If I can find it......

I was surfing along and when I came across it...not sure what fraze I had googled to get it, but I'll try....

[Justikanz]

Oh oh... Think mine are SAEs.... The black stripe goes ALL the way to the end of the tail... Keke...

So, is it normal to have 1 fat one and 1 slim one together? What are their breeding colours?

Oh... Hope I have a pair...