golden algae eater

[barclay]

i've made yet another mistake i took the word of the pet shop and bought a golden algae eater (this was before i knew about this site)

i know that hes cool while he is young and that when he grows older he could be a threat to my fishes sides and eyeball but i kinda like watching him. but now hes changing colour from a golden colour to a blackish grey colour on his sides. Is this normal? I try to make sure that hes eating ok and have bought some algae wafers but i would like to know more about the care of gae and if he has a problem? Please could anyone help?

cheers
New fish keeper!

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Mnay fish change colour, depending on mood and if they are getting older. What are your parameters? How is the fish acting?

 

[Xellos69]

I saw that at petco too (petco is a chain store in the US) ... some of the algae eaters there have black patches.

There was a really really large 3" golden algae eater at my LPS, it had a big blackish spot on his side

mine grew from 3/4" to about 1 1/2" and I have yet to see any black spots.