Siamese Algae Eaters, Where To Buy?

[nivisec]

Hello all, I'm posting this here because I figured this fish would be a primary for lots of people with planted tanks.

I'm down to the last thing on the Black Beard Algae (other than a chemical treatment)...This stuff is like a disease. I've got it down from spreading very quickly, my other plants are doing great, but it just won't die all the way. I know it'll pop back up as soon as I do a water change or dose anything but flourish excel. I've been through about every possible action, but I won't go into detail. Some SAEs are my lost hope, because I don't want to treat with copper and kill all my plant cleaning snails and shrimp.

Of course, I can't find SAE's anywhere locally, even via having the shops ordering, so I need somewhere I could drive to within like a few hours or get reliable shipping with a guarantee they are really SAEs. This would include Western, VA pretty much as a driving distance.

Thanks all.

 

[Lynda B]

We saw SAE's at our local Petco (in CT).

 

[Themuleous]

Forget about getting an SAE, some people report them eating BBA but in my experience they more often than not never touch the algae, instead just eating the normal fish food. They also get quite big at 6" and so a not normally suited to most tanks.

Sam

 

[-germ-]

Agree with the mule, they'll nibble at algae but won't make a visible difference.
Plus there is the I.D issues.
Took 2 back to LFS recently...

 

[Spank]

I had pretty bad BBA until recently, the only way I effectively removed it out of my tank was to take everything out and whack the lot in bleach. Plants included. Ornaments, like rocks and bog wood I left in for 24+ hrse before rinsing very very thoroughly and putting back into my tank.
With plants I used a weaker bleach solution (apprtox 500 mls of bleach to 10 l water) and dipped them in and swished them about for 1-2 minutes before rinsing very several times and replanting. Also I removed any leaves that looked as if they were not going to be rescuable.

Having replanted and re-organised my tank, I whacked on the lighting and increased CO2 and got myself a pH controller so my CO2 is now at aconstant level. I also use flourish excel to hold back any potential further outbreaks of the stuff.

I now run a BBA free tank and the 1-2 days of hard work have really paid off. I know it seems quite drastic but it works and if your outbreak is any where near as bad as mine was you'll depfinately appreciate the outcomes too.

 

[RadaR]

Id only advise SAEs for large tanks aswell. 40G and up.

 

[sianuk]

Hi guys
So what would you suggest fish wise to help control algae issues in a well planted tank perhaps some thing that does not grow that large so you could have several munching away

thxs Ian

 

[Spank]

Hi guys
So what would you suggest fish wise to help control algae issues in a well planted tank perhaps some thing that does not grow that large so you could have several munching away

thxs Ian

Otto's!!!

I have around 10 now in my 120gl!!

 

[nivisec]

Forget about getting an SAE, some people report them eating BBA but in my experience they more often than not never touch the algae, instead just eating the normal fish food. They also get quite big at 6" and so a not normally suited to most tanks.

Sam

I see a lot of good reports from some people while researching them, so long as you get the real SAE and not any of the look-a-likes.

If there's even a chance that they will eat it, I'll try it...

The bleach method works, but I'd have to chuck all my substrate and everything to get it totally clean...