Whats The Algae Eater That Attacks/sucks Fish?

[freddiesfish]

Hi all, wonder if you can help me out. I read a thread the other day (cant find it now) about an algae eater that grows quite quickly and gets large and is fond of sucking a hole in other fish. Ring any bells? Come to my mums this weekend and she tells me her new sucking loach has more than doubled in size in 2 weeks, the tank is completely algae free but 2 gouramis hav e died with strange brown marks in the side of them. All other fish are in perfect health, although 3 cardinals have disappeared!!

It reminded me of the other thread where someone was describing a rougue loach(sucker) that looks similar too another breed when young but quickly grows and is very hungry.

The sucking loach in my mums tank is orange in colour and is now about 2 inch long.

Any help would be great

 

[minxfishy]

chinese algae eater?

 

[bagu]

aaaa

yellow sucking loach

 

[freddiesfish]

lethal? Just googled golden sucking loach and it brings up a very similar picture, grows to 12 inchs and gets aggressive when older, well theirs is 2 inches and claim 2 gouramis already!!

 

[Ally555]

Chinese Algae Eater maybe???

Does it look like this? If it does it's a Chinese Algae Eater.

 

[freddiesfish]

Yes that's the one!! Is a golden sucking loach the same thing? Is there not an orange one they could get that won't savage the other fish? Its definatly the one in your pic, what can they expect if they keep it? They want to take it back but its proving hard to catch at the minute!

 

[minxfishy]

You can have a siamese algae eater, looks similar but isnt aggressive, they are often confused in LFS. Failing that, have you considered a small plec, like a bristlenose.

 

[Ally555]

Yes that's the one!! Is a golden sucking loach the same thing? Is there not an orange one they could get that won't savage the other fish? Its definatly the one in your pic, what can they expect if they keep it? They want to take it back but its proving hard to catch at the minute!

I honestly don't know if a golden sucking loach is the same thing but the pic is of a chinese algae eater. If you keep them with other fish, especially flat bodied fish, such as silver dollars, angelfish, ect they could suck the slime coat of the fish. This would leave it prone to an infection.
And I know what you mean about 'hard to catch'. They are fast fish.

 

[bagu]

was i correct then?

those fish are very aggressive, im sorry to hear about the losses mate =[

 

[freddiesfish]

Yes mate looks a lot like the pic of a golden chinese algae eater, does the siamese version look similar? Sorry, I am accessing this via my phone as I can't get to pc at the minute, thanks for the replies so far. They are trying to catch it at the minute to take back but in 450l anted tank its proving difficult!

 

[three-fingers]

Chinese algae eaters come in yellow too, they have just been bred for the colour. They are also often called "sucking loaches" and just "algae eaters" in stores.

Siamese algae eaters are a different species, they stay smaller (though still get quite chunky) and are very fast moving active fish that should be kept in groups.

Then there are flying foxes (a couple of different species usually show up in stores), which are also similar. They stay smaller than Chinese algae eaters and don't need to be kept in groups, they can be territorial towards their own kind and similar looking fish, but are generally very peaceful.

The important thing with all these fish is that you learn to identify them yourself, and don't rely on the name tag at the LFS. LFS's are terrible at getting the names right.

This site is great for IDing them:
[URL="http/www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/"]http/www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/[/URL]

 

[bagu]

Chinese algae eaters come in yellow too, they have just been bred for the colour. They are also often called "sucking loaches" and just "algae eaters" in stores.

Siamese algae eaters are a different species, they stay smaller (though still get quite chunky) and are very fast moving active fish that should be kept in groups.

Then there are flying foxes (a couple of different species usually show up in stores), which are also similar. They stay smaller than Chinese algae eaters and don't need to be kept in groups, they can be territorial towards their own kind and similar looking fish, but are generally very peaceful.

The important thing with all these fish is that you learn to identify them yourself, and don't rely on the name tag at the LFS. LFS's are terrible at getting the names right.

This site is great for IDing them:
<a href="http/www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/" target="_blank">http/www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/</a>

very true, alot of LFS i have been to have got them named wrong

thats a great site btw, im looking for another one i used to check out =/