Chinese Algae Eaters

[Debo]

I was in the petshop today and a whole bunch of people were buying chinese algae eaters. I said to a few of them that I had heard they can be a problem when they get larger and a few of the people said absolutely not. They also said that they do a better job than a plecostomus{which is what I was there for}
So what is with this? I keep seeing posts from people on here that these are bad news and then these people tell me something else. These were customers of the fish shop-not employees. I bought a small pleco with the hopes of keeping the algae down a bit. I can't wait to see what the tank looks like in the AM.
I purposely didn't wipe the insides of the glass down when I did a water change to see if he would do a good job. I hope I am not asking for too much or expecting miracles. I really don't have much algae. It will be interesting to see how he does.
Deb

 

[Eelzor]

all fish are different. One example is people keep neons with angels and dont get a single death for the whole life. This is the same with algae eaters. Some may be aggressive and evil, some may be passive and not threat any other fish for the rest of their life. One can only basically tell the typical instinct about a fish. Maybe 2 out of 10 AE's don't become a harm, maybe 1/10 angels dont eat neons. It's all in the strange fish world. 8) Or there might be a logical explanation, I'm not sure.

 

[ryan]

i brought 4 CAE's two golden two normal they did fine didn't really bother anything except for a bit of chasing. they did harass each other alot because they are highly terrotorial. but i found not one bit of algae in that tank while they were in there. and the big one i had before in a different tank only grew to 3 inches in about 7 years and all tha time he kept the tank spotless it was incredible. however i took my new ones back because they shreded every live oant in my tank at the base so all the leaves floated to the top, but they didn't eat any of the leaves just made the tank a complete mess.

as far as keeping algae down i would say they are better than plecs but they can be highly terratorial.

What plec do you hav?

most do not do alot except the bristlenose plec a hard worker i must say and he does a good job.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

There is also the fact that certain plecos get enormous... My CAE is ok, he sucks on the other fish's slim coats (so does the plec) but it doesn't harm the "victims" so there isn't really a problem.

FYI, I read that CAE are actually found near Thailand. Maybe we should start calling them TAEs.

 

[gmcdonald]

My CAE is smaller than all my other fish (about ----------------- long) and scrubbed my tank clean of algae in 3 days!!! He seems very happy in the tank and doesn't bother the other fish in the slightest. If he does get to be big and aggressive, then I'll just take him back to the shop!

 

[millym]

hi there,
we have a cae that started off v tiny -------- size, now its about
----------------------------------- long & just in the last few weeks he/shes started chasing our corys around, it doesnt seem to serious (yet) but ive heard horror stories & are worried about the future, i put a post here & everyone said we needed to return him to the lfs as hes not in a suitable environment. & i know thats what we have to do but so far havent had the heart!!! keep hoping he'll behave. i hate taking something back for just acting naturally but obviously dont want any of our peaceful tank to be hurt or terrorized. id also hate to see him in a boring old lfs tank for ages if no one else gives him a home quickly. (sad but true)