SAE not eating algae

[chago09]

I just got three SAE yesterday morning and they are real ones I made sure. and i have yet to see them eat any algae. Will they eat algae off glass aswell???? will that eat algae at all??? someone who has these fish tell me exactly what these fish actually do??? because right now my three are fighting 24/7. They don't stop fighting to even eat.

[scans]

I have heard from many that they will stop eating algae and start living off of the fish food. Yours may have already reached that stage.

[ShinShin]

SAE's are great at eating algae provided that there is no other food available for them.

[RyanH]

IMO, these are not good tankmates for Discus. They are aggressive and become more and more carnivorous as they get older.

If you are having a problem with algae, either change your cleaning regiment and try a couple of bristlenose plecos.

[dean]

SAE asthey get older will succumb to the temptation to eat whatever you feed your discus and then supplement with algae.
I have 3 3inchers that that will suck the life out of a peice of BH!
IMO, your best algae CONTAIMENT CREW are bristlenose and GROWN (2 1/2 in) amano shrimp.

[Bainbridge Mike]

In my experience, SAE's and flying foxes are smart--they figure out that it is much easier to eat the food that is dropped in the tank everyday than to try and eat algae.

Mike

[Dissident]

Every SAE/FF I have had has gone off of eating algae in the matter of a month or two.

The best algae control is prevention. If you are having algae problems I would find out what is causeing it before dumping fish into your tank. None of my planted tanks even need an algae eating crew but they are in there regardless.

[Wahter]

SAE info:
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/cyprinid.html
(make sure you have the real fish)

They are scavengers and will eat the red / black brush/ beard algea pretty much when nothing else is available (they will nibble on the stuff in between feedings too). Bristlenoses won't touch this type of algae (well, they might touch it, but they sure won't remove it).

Here's a pic of the type of this type of algae circled in red.

[Wahter]

SAEs won't do much against green hair algae. (Flagfish and Amano shrimp can though). Here's a photo of this type of algae (again circled in red). Again, bristlenoses won't do a thing to remove this type of algae either.

[Wahter]

Here's a pic of an SAE, note the criss cross pattern on the body above the black stripe and the black stripe extends into the caudal (tail) fin. The black stripe has rough edges. Plus all the fins are clear/ transparent. The mouth is not a sucker (unlike the bristlenose catfish nor the Chinese algae eater).

Hope this helps.


Walter

[standoyo]

hi all,

SAE's eating algae? on it's own in non discus, nothing else to eat situation yes. then it's only those that walter has so kindly posted.
However, i think it's quite an impossibility since we feed our discus well.

IME, they'd rather eat my moss and fish food SAE's.

Chago 09,
Assuming you have a planted tank...
i'd take other member's suggestion to sort out the plant needs to tackle algae issue. Algae doesn't do well if the plants needs are taken cared of. it's opportunistic in low nutrient/limiting plant uptake setups.

GSA[green spot algae] can be removed with pruning or a credit card for the glass. a few oto's will eat brown algae.


stan

[chago09]

ok thanx all for the tips. The SAE's are real ones I looked that up like crazy before I got these ones. They did begin to eat some algae but I don't want to just keep buying fish to eat algae when it keeps growing. The only algae I have is the basic green glass and green substrate. I know thats normal for a tank but I have never had a tank where it grew so quickly. I also have some brown algae on amazon sword leaves. I keep cleaning it with my fingers and then do a large water change but it still won't totally go away. I have did a complete cleaning of the tank about three times now and the last time I did it was yesterday. It looks like nothing has started growing again yet but i'll wait a few more days. Yes I was told that if your tank is well planted that algae can't compete???? is this true??? Well my tank is only about semi planted right now cause its still in the works. All I have is some amazon swords and some java fern. Tuesday I will be getting some microswords. Plus the amazon swords are sending out a lot of runners so new plants will be expected soon. Someone said in a reply that the plants must get all there needs to beat out the algae. Well I stoped giving seachem flourish because I thought it was causing algae. I have a seachem flourite substrate so should I get back to adding flourish and maybe that will kill some algae by strengthining plants????

[pcsb23]

Chago,

The most common reason for algae in tanks is an imbalance between macro nutrients, micro nutrients and light. The most common mistake peole make when they have an algae problem is to stop adding fertilisers. You have the basics of a good planted tank there with your substrate. Before adding anymore fish I would do as Dissident suggested and try and work out the root cause (no pun intended). Brown algae is normally associated with new tanks, how long has this tank been going? You will need to work out how many watts of lighting, what type of lighting, duration of lighting and then test for nitrate and phosphate, ph, gh/kh and if possible Fe. Somewhere in there will be the answer, not adding algae eating fish that inevitavbly won't!

I would still add seachem flourish and if not using CO2 add seachem flourish excel too. Add some faster growing plants too, most swords are at best medium rate growers whilst virtually all java ferns are slow growers. Echinodorus bleheri - which is a sword - grows fast and in low light.

hth,
Paul.

[chago09]

thanx a lot and heres my specs that you asked for pcsb. I have 2 x 65 watt CF. There on about 11 hours a day. There both 6700K bulbs. Yes the tank is new it's about 8 weeks old now. Nitrate is always at 10 and Ph is 7.0. I need to buy a phosphate tester so i don't know what it is at right now. Thanx for the tip with the flourish I'll get back to adding it in my tank right away. One question though about excel I heard it will kinda make your fish have a hard time breathing. My discus are more important to me then my plants so do I really need excel??? Also most bottles of plant ferts don't tell you how much to dose they always just say "regularly" what does that mean, please tell me your dosing methods. And thanx for the plant idea list some more please as many as you know that will grow quickly.
Thanx

[Dissident]

Shorten to 9hrs....
What size is the tank?
Is there ANY CO2?


I 3x Dose FlourishExcel (there is a big difference between Flourish and FlourishExcel) in my discus tank.
pcsb is right about the fast growers. Most stem plants will work fine. A good population of duckweed will work too but is a pain in the butt.
Wysteria is cheap and easy to find. Hygro is another cheap fast grower.