I have had this chinese algae eater for a few months and he was the runt of the litter. Now he is a few inches long. I know these guys have a bad reputation, but I haven't had any bad experiences in any of my previous tanks with them. The other day I got 4 new smaller slower moving fish.

I guess I can sum up my question here: how do these algae eaters attack? They don't necessarily have teeth, do they? Do they just suck the slime coat off of fish? Do they attack to kill, or attack to.....do something else?

I really don't want to get rid of him unless he starts harming my fish. He has approached a few fish, but when they swim away from him, he gives up the chase and goes back to the glass. The reason I don't want to get rid of him is because he does a really good job keeping my glass and 3D background clean (which is damn near impossible to clean on my own). I'd have to trade for some plecostamus, but I don't think they do as good of a job.

Thanks

I used to have one of these guys for a couple of years, when they're small they're not at all aggressive, however, when it gets bigger than four to five inches, that's where the problems start, the fish attaches itself to the side of other fish and can suck a whole right through them!

Mine was about 6" inches when it died, it usually fights with plecos and other algae eating fish chasing them about the tank and stressing them out. Taller fish are more at risk as they have a larger side surface area for CAE's to latch on to.

I'd say keep an eye out for such behaviour and although these guys do a wonderful job of cleaning algae as juveniles they get very territorial once they've gotten older...

Either way, if you want to swap, I'd say get Siamese algae eaters, these are wonderful fish and look alot like CAE's which can be hard to tell apart and best of all they eat black hair algae, something not many fish do.

Good luck!

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195G Pleco - 13" Clown Knife - 14" Silver tinfoil barb - 7", 7 Clown loaches - 4-5" 1 Black ghost knife - 7" 2 Tilapias - 4" 2 GT's - 3"

Thanks for the input! The biggest fish I have is a balloon molly....which isn't a huge fish. But he seems to leave them alone. However I can tell the fish are on edge when the algae eater is around though.

No problem! Just keep an eye on him/her and if you notice any "side sucking" for lack of a better phrase! then just remove it, because once these guys get a taste for slimecoat they don't stop. Good Luck!

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195G Pleco - 13" Clown Knife - 14" Silver tinfoil barb - 7", 7 Clown loaches - 4-5" 1 Black ghost knife - 7" 2 Tilapias - 4" 2 GT's - 3"