Chinese algae eater

[kucita]

Hi, anyone can share with me the experience of keeping Chinese algae eater before or now? I have one in the tank, 4cm length when I bought it. Thank you

[jiajuen900]

Chinese algae eaters turn aggresive as they grow larger. They will harrass smallerfish and uproot plants in planted tanks as they grow. They tend to grow really large. I prefer to have SAEs to clear algae rather than chinese algae eaters

[kucita]

I bought it was the fish shop people told me CAE good in eating algae and the color looks nice to me but now I think I got to move it out anytime when the CAE do the damage, I heard of SAE, seem much more 'value'

[jiajuen900]

SAEs dont grow as large and eat more vaieties of algae compared to CAE. They are also non aggresive fish

[garfieldnfish]

I have 2 of them and had them for 6 years. While they were little they got along well. Then one harrassed the other and was also responsible for the death of one fish and almost killed another by sucking the slime coat of the fish. One was a slow moving goldfish (the survivor) the other victim that died, a gourami. When these fish get older they have a higher need for protein and they take it from the slime coat of their slow moving tankmates. I had to remove the offender. He would not even let the other CAE eat any more. So he was moved to a 15 gal tank. And I added a dwarf puffer to the tank. Those two have been together for about 4 years and all is well. The puffer gets a lot of bloodworms and the CAE eats the leftovers so now he gets his share of protein this way and the puffer is too small to latch onto anyway. The good behaving CAE is still in my 75 gal and has never harrassed another fish. He eats algae but also anything else that I feed the other fish. So it really depends on the fish itself not just the species.

[kucita]

Thank you JiaJuen900, I believe SAE is good, also Thank you Garfieldnfish for your long sharing, I will see how my only 1 CAE behave for the next fish year

[apistomaster]

If I had my way, Chinese Algae Eaters would never be sold without a full disclosure of their generally obnoxious behaviors. Then people could choose to buy them with their informed consent.
I have nothing good to say for these fish.

[minute_me]

I have 3 SAEs in my tank. They do not clear away the green stuff on the wall of my tank which I assumed to be algae.

THe sae seem to be more interested in the tubifex worms and other fish food which I throw into the tank.

[kucita]

sometime it is good to share some experience of what fishes behavior and what kind of fishes can not be put together in the same tank, I find it interesting that you will never know until you buy it and put it in your tank for few days. Algae eater fish can be quite nice looking if you know how to appreciate, I just hoping my CAE will behavior good for the rest of it's life.

[kucita]

there is a big fish shop at jln kayu, sea view aquarium.

[elmo]

CAE tends tio be very hardworking when young but gets very lazy when they gets bigger.

[jiajuen900]

Actually SAE is similiar, big get lazy but young hardworking. And old it is less aggresive than CAE. Also they do not mess up soil and plants as much as CAE does

[elmo]

Agree...they will 'disturb' the substrate whenever they swim by as they seems very 'kan jiong' dunno rushing to where...

[hotweldfire]

If I had my way, Chinese Algae Eaters would never be sold without a full disclosure of their generally obnoxious behaviors. Then people could choose to buy them with their informed consent.
I have nothing good to say for these fish.

Couldn't agree more. Had one of these a few years back and was responsible for the death of otos, cories and even some harlequins. Best avoided in a community tank.

[sungod666]

CAE! Ha!, these buggers are always sold together with SAE for those unexperienced hobbist. I often see CAE mixed with SAE in the same tank. SAE have a straight black line throughout its body and no dots! CAE will have a few dots in a straight line spaced out evenly. Polyart mixed in some CAE in my bag of SAE though i think they didnt do it on purpose, it gave me so much trouble to fish out the CAE. Feed them to my Gar, 1 min and they are gone. cost me 80c per piece.

[llhan]

CAE can keep with Lobster? i tot of getting 1.

[sianxz]

CAE can keep with Lobster? i tot of getting 1.

Depending on the size of the lobster, i am pretty sure your CAE will become your lobster's supper

[dermarko]

The problem is once the CAE has tasted other foods, it will not feed so much on algae. I just removed 3 pieces of them in my L46 zebra comm tank. Difficult to catch them out and had a hard time trying to catch them. They even outgrew the zebras at a very astonishing rate.

[shunkun]

I had 1Golden.Algae.Eater 2Chinese.Algae.Eater 1Siamease.Algae.Eater 1CORY in my 2ft tank with 1 batch of cardinal and another batch of black neon tetra. Living in harmony for some years. My GAE secured a hideout under a big log and claimed KING(biggest and very tame though) while the other algae eaters rest outside. Till one day I saw my GAE outside, behind my tank, it's dried!!! (wonder why it jumped out, my heart still hurt even till now >.<") Then one of my big CAE took over the log and became the king of the tank. Now this big fellow would always chase after my SAE around the tank. But so far no casualties. What surprise me was it never once dare touch the cory.(maybe cory head bigger so face to face cory win whaha).

I had to agree, yes the breed(CAE) seems to be aggressive, but every fish has got it's very behavior. I'm lucky my big fellow hasn't cause any damage yet.

Talking about CAE having big movement creating a stir at the bottom, my SAE stir more than my CAE... ... swam faster too.

Cory indeed uprooted some of my hair grass I planted recently. Haizzzzzz... ... What to do, I just love them ^-^"

[takaco]

This species of algae eater can become aggressive when they become full grown.


The main source of food is algae on plants, rocks, glass, and driftwood. Algae based wafers should be provided if there is a lack of algae.