Chinese Algae Eater gets a bad rap
Posted: 05 Jun 2004, 14:10
Hi everyone, can I just say that I have one Chinese Algae Eater in my community tank with a dwarf golden sucking fish (name unknown, if you know it's proper name please tell me) and 6 Cory's.
This fish has only ever sucked the glass or over the substrate looking for food. He spends a lot of his time hiding in the rock I provided with the golden one, otherwise he likes to play with all the others. My 8 fish have made themselves a family who eat and play together, and occasionally a cory will visit the suckers in the cave. This is usually to entice the suckers out to play.
All my fish have been together for over two months now with no damage done and no aggressive behaviour. I feel for those of you who have had a bad experience with this fish in the past, but that's not to say they should all be tarred with the same brush. Also I should state that I previously had two of these fish with a pair of goldfish (the petshop at the time sold them as coldwater fish) and they were both fine two, I only sold them with the goldfish because I decided to go tropical.
Maybe it's because my fish need not attack the slime coats on other fish, because they all get an abundance of food each day (meaning they get small feeds several times rather than one or two bigger feeds, this way they get a variety, as I first give them bloodworm for breaky, then a feed of flake mid morning, at lunch they get a sinking pellet food and algae wafer, another feed of flake mid arvo, and then for dinner they get bine shrimp. All feeds are tiny amounts and quickly eaten, but this way they get a staple diet that covers each of their individual favourites.)
Sonia
This fish has only ever sucked the glass or over the substrate looking for food. He spends a lot of his time hiding in the rock I provided with the golden one, otherwise he likes to play with all the others. My 8 fish have made themselves a family who eat and play together, and occasionally a cory will visit the suckers in the cave. This is usually to entice the suckers out to play.
All my fish have been together for over two months now with no damage done and no aggressive behaviour. I feel for those of you who have had a bad experience with this fish in the past, but that's not to say they should all be tarred with the same brush. Also I should state that I previously had two of these fish with a pair of goldfish (the petshop at the time sold them as coldwater fish) and they were both fine two, I only sold them with the goldfish because I decided to go tropical.
Maybe it's because my fish need not attack the slime coats on other fish, because they all get an abundance of food each day (meaning they get small feeds several times rather than one or two bigger feeds, this way they get a variety, as I first give them bloodworm for breaky, then a feed of flake mid morning, at lunch they get a sinking pellet food and algae wafer, another feed of flake mid arvo, and then for dinner they get bine shrimp. All feeds are tiny amounts and quickly eaten, but this way they get a staple diet that covers each of their individual favourites.)
Sonia