Golden Algae Eaters

[Gloria]

Hi,

I'm new here and new to keeping tropical fish so please excuse any obvious questions I may ask!

I have 2 golden algae eaters in a tank with guppies, neons, black widdows (i think that's what they are) and I've read that they can grow to 5 inches long and are quite aggressive?

Do you think that I should worry about the golden algae eaters eating my neons?

Also, my golden algae eaters are hiding under an ornament when I put the 'daylight' light on. Is this normal for them, are they nocturnal?

How long should I leave the 'daylight' light on each day? I'm trying to leave it on for approx 6 hours per day as I have real plants in the tank which will also benefit from it.

If anyone can give me any more important tips for the fish combination I've got in the tank then all advice will be useful.

Thanks
G

 

[Alien Anna]

Re: my post on newbie "No-nos" in the Beginners Section . I should probably edit it to note that a "Golden Algae Eater" is a CAE (Chinese algae eater).

They are the nightmares of the tank, incredibly territorial and vicious as soon as they are adult. They can actually grow to 11-13" long (I've heard of a 20" specimen, although that might be a fish-keeper's tale) and long before that they stop eating much algae, prefering their tank-mates slime coats and eye-balls as food sources You cannot keep two in one tank - I suspect even if you had a 200 gallon tank, it might not be big enough for the both of them.

CAEs are semi-nocturnal and like to hide. But this should not be mistaken for shyness. They are also total nightmares to catch so when I suggest strongly that you at least get rid of one (take it back to the LFS), I know I'm suggesting a difficult task. Still, it has to be done.

 

[Gloria]

Thank you for your reply, the last thing I want to see are my fish being eaten by their aggressive tank mates!

The fish shop I got them from has agreed to take them back. But can you advise me on a suitable replacement(s)? I would like either a pretty replacement, a cleaner fish (like the algae eater) or a different dweller to my existing fish (black widows, guppies, neons) to make the tank more interesting.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[platypus]

Hi Gloria,

You may find they are very slippery customers when it comes to catching them and taking them back - if so you might want to read this post I submitted a while back of my own experiences. Hope it helps!

If you have enough room in your tank, I think corys are lovely bottom feeders - really cute and full of character. You need to get a small group though.

 

[Alien Anna]

How big is your tank? You should try to stick to roughly 1 inch of fish length (excluding tail) per US gallon of fish, although you can play around with that if you're careful.

Your tetras should ideally be in schools of 6-8 fish (the more the better) and neons, being very small should be in a school of 8-10 minimum. However, don't over-stock just to get the right school sizes.

Depending on the size of your tank you could consider cory catfish or dwarf otto catfish (both species are schooling fish, 1-2" long), a bristlenosed or clown dwarf plec (3-4.5" long) or apple snails (good for smaller tanks in place of bottom feeders).

Also, smaller loaches are great for the bottom of a community tank but as they are schooling fish you have to be careful about space. That includes yoyo loaches and chain loaches (or "pygmy botia"). I have some chain loaches myself - they eat snails, which is great. However, they are rare and expensive and you can't always get them. Kuhli loaches are very unusual, like orange and black snakes and useful for aerating your substrate, and they don't take up much room, but they tend to disappear into the depths of a tank.

 

[Jo]

You may find they are very slippery customers when it comes to catching them and taking them back - if so you might want to read this post I submitted a while back of my own experiences. Hope it helps!

Same goes for sucking loaches, so don't be tempted...a friend of mine was trying to catch his and thought that he had caught it and put it in the bucket, when he came to find it, he found that instead of catching it, it had jumped out of the net and died, so if you are new to the game I'd try to get something easier to catch (I'm glad that I did!)

 

[Gloria]

My tank is 30 inches deep x 30 inches height x 60 inches wide so I'm not sure how many gallons that is.

In that sized tank I have 8 guppies, 2 red & 2 black phantoms or black widows, 4 neons and the 2 algae eaters which I am exchanging! How many more can the tank take or shall I get rid of more??

I'll try the catfish if I haven't over stocked already!! And I may get a few more neons if they are schooling fish.

 

[Alien Anna]

Same goes for sucking loaches, so don't be tempted...

"Sucking loach" is yet another pseudonym for CAEs, aka:

* Chinese Sucking Loach
* Golden Sucking Loach
* Chinese Algae Eater
* Golden Algae Eater
* Indian Algae Eater
* Indian Sucking loach
* G.aymonieri
* Gyrinocheilus aymonieri
* "That flippin' b*stid that's taken over my tank and bitten my angelfish!"

 

[Jo]

ahh, thanks, didn't know that!

good call then plattypus, no wonder we had the same problems! same fish.....doh!!

 

[platypus]

Good to have all those different names together, nice one.

good call then plattypus, no wonder we had the same problems! same fish.....doh!!

he he I'm sure they only give them so many names so that newbies can't wise up to the scam and keep buying loads of the pesky things!

What I don't understand is why lfs's feel the need to do this - is it just ignorance on their part? I find this hard to believe. And if they're trying to make a quick buck then why bother? Surely there are some other algae eaters that will do the job just as well and not grow to be such monsters?

Or is it just that they expect all fishkeepers to be as cr*ppy as themselves and so don't reckon the CAEs will ever reach adulthood.

 

[CFC]

My tank is 30 inches deep x 30 inches height x 60 inches wide so I'm not sure how many gallons that is.

In that sized tank I have 8 guppies, 2 red & 2 black phantoms or black widows, 4 neons and the 2 algae eaters which I am exchanging! How many more can the tank take or shall I get rid of more??

I'll try the catfish if I haven't over stocked already!! And I may get a few more neons if they are schooling fish.

Are you sure those measurements are inches ? Because if they are that tank is about 195 UK gallons and you have loads of room for more fish, the few fish you have which only come to about 26" of fish only fill about 1/8 of the total inches of fish you can have.

I have the feeling you may have confused centimeters for inches in which case the tank is closer to 20 gallons and you are fully stocked already.