I need everyone's opinion on the golden sucking loach in other words the chinese algae eater
If you could answer these questions i'd be greatly appreciated


1- Are they aggressive or not?
2-How big do they grow?
3-Can they be kept together more than 1?
4-What size of tank is needed for them?

Need as many as possible because lfs banned me from shop for returning these because i wasn't happy keeping these as from what i read about them. so need to prove to shop that they are wrong as they are selling these to people who have no idea of the consequences:-)

This post has been edited by rocknurworld2006: Oct 17 2007, 10:32 AM

Chinese Algae Eater when young do eat algae, but when older tend to eat other stuff. When they get older and bigger, they become very territorial and may attack your other fishes. These fish can grow up to more that 20cm, so they can become quite large. They might make a snack out of your other fish's slime on their bodies and may damage their scales or even worse. They are fine when young in a community tank, but should be removed to their own tank when older. So I wouldn't reccomend them for a community tank.

And they are not loaches either.

If a store sells them as loaches, perhaps one can argue that this is a misrepresentation.

My two did suck the sides of other fish, and yes they did turn aggressive. Never got to see their full size, one died prematurely (took a flying leap from the tank one night- I trod on it the next morning ), the other I passed on to a friend. If I were to keep them again, I would keep one specimen on its own in a 20-29 gallon tank.

Yes. This varies, but on the whole they are definitely not community fish. They can work in robust communities with aggressive fish. I kept two in a 200 gallon Central American cichlid tank, and they worked nicely as target fish. They give pairs of cichlids something to focus their aggression on by being annoying (getting the cichlids angry) but too fast to come to any serious harm. Obviously, this sort of "Mexican stand-off" is NOT what you want in the average aquarium.

Average seems to be about 20 cm in aquaria, though up to 35 cm in the wild, supposedly.

Yes, but aggression can be severe in small groups (twos or threes). They are highly territorial, and unless in a really big tank (~150 gallons upwards) I'd certainly recommend against keeping more than one.

For a single specimen, something around the 55 gallon mark would be about right. Water quality, and especially water current, are important. They are typical mountain stream fish, and often rather short-lived when kept in not-particularly well filtered aquaria.

Cheers, Neale

This post has been edited by nmonks: Oct 17 2007, 11:03 AM

Neale has pretty much covered it, bumping the thread is pointless. Getting a load of people to say "me too" is not going to help your cause. There is a profile in the library.

Just for my curiosity really, what other fish were you keeping with the algae eaters?

When I kept them, they were with a 45 cm spotted gar, a 40 cm channel catfish, an adult Midas cichlid, an adult Jaguar cichlid, a 30 cm gibbiceps catfish, and a handful of convict cichlids. And this is all in a 200 gallon tank. So we're talking about fish that are all well able to handle themselves in a fight. The Chinese algae eaters ignored the gar and the catfish (wisely) but fought endlessly with the cichlids. Jaguar cichlids don't tend to go looking for fights, but Midas cichlids do, and that's about the level of territoriality and aggression were talking about here.

Chinese algae eaters are basically powerful, mean-tempered, aggressive fish that no-one in their right mind would ever put in a regular community tank. If you're expecting people to say, "Oh, mine are fine with angelfish and guppies" you'll be waiting a long time...! The baby algae eaters are harmless enough I suppose, but the adults are psychopathic thugs.

Cheers, Neale

Yeah I actually know all about them too, i have one at present and have had 2 more in the past, was just curious on what rocknurworld2006 was keeping them with,

The one i have at present was originally in with my pair of convicts, and is now with my Nicaraguense, 3 Hemiodus, 2 spotted Raphaels, 1 Striped Raphael, 1 Syno Eupterus and 1 Pimelodella

Chinese Algae Eaters in my experience are awful!!

I had 2, I got rid after 2 weeks, they kept trying to suck the eye balls off of my cory's!!

Get some little Ottocinclus, they are great in a little group of 4 or 5, get on with every one, dont get too big and eat all the algae.

This is a well known phenomenen. I don't know why CAE's have such an issue with Corys, but they really hate them, unless, of course, Cory eyes taste particularly good?

I have a loan CAE in a 47 gal community tank. Usual story of being sold him along with goldfish when I was just starting out as an "algae eater". Infact, I bought 2, along with 3 oranda and some WCMMs in a 7gal coldwater tank. Yeah, great advice from the store there.

Anyway, after he'd despatched the second CAE (after about a month), and then after a lot of agression issues with him attacking my loan goldfish I had to seperate him. He then went on to live aloan in the 7 gal, then onto a 15gal while I was trying to get something bigger. I now have him in the 47gal as I say. Hes in there with 6 pentazona barbs (very peaceful), 6 harlequin rasbora (also very peaceful), 2 ottos, 2 bamboo shrimp and 4 leopard danios (very boistrous, but generally peaceful).

The CAE is about 5" and I've had virtually no problems with him since being in the larger tank. One of my harlequins lost an eye within a few weeks of getting them, but I'm almost certain that was a danio. I have seen him seemingly go for one of the shrimp, but it looked more like he was trying to rasp algae from it then eat it. He'll zip around now and then, but all the other fish just get out of the way. He's now very content lurking in his hiding spots, but also quite happy to swim about looking for algae and other food, latching onto the tank sides or bogwood. He also likes to burrow, making a bit of a mess

Anyway, housed with the right fish, in a large enough tank they aren't really a problem on their own. Anything slow moving and/or deep bodied will be too tempting for him to suck onto though.

This post has been edited by DevUK: Nov 24 2007, 03:04 PM

I had mine for two years. I had to keep to small fishes but he/she is fine. I gave her/him 3 hiding places. Also plenty of cucumber to keep him/her busy which is great to watch him/her going to the top to grab the cucumber.

He/she is in a 4ft planted tank.

He/She loves her hiding places so much that when I moved him/her from a 3ft tank into a 4ft tank I had to move him/her in its tube in a plastic fish bag as he/she wouldn't come out of it.

This post has been edited by Michelleuk: Nov 25 2007, 08:30 PM

I have also had mine for a number of years,he's fine with all kinds of fish unless they are dead already,i have had him with guppies,platties swords you name it he's lived with them

Bought 2 a few years ago, one for my guppy fry tank, the other for my community tank, the fish keeper said, Yea they are happy fish good for the community tank. They were fine in both tanks. Then 3 months later, i bought some sword tails for my community tank, the blasted thing killed all 3 within a day. The one in the fry tank was peaceful all the time (although there were sooo many babies, i wouldnt have seen the odd 1 or 2 eaten)

The same happend to two of my plecos aswell, both over 12'. I hate the things.As neale said they're like phsychopathic thugs when adult

I have one chinese algae eater in 55 gal community tank and have no problems with it. Its about 4inch long. Its tankmates are mostly endlers, daffondi cichlid and bluefin killifish. They were too fast for CAE. I think they need to be with right tankmates that's not easy to suck on such as smaller fishes and slender bodied fishes that always swimming all day. Like smaller tetra species and smaller livebearers, and aggresive cichlids. I even kept one with gambusia. The CAE are not bad fish, its just its not right tankmate like I put piranha with goldfish and hope they will become buddies or I put fancy goldfish with convict cichlids. That would be no. CAE's best tankmates are danio species, smaller tetras, guppies, medaka fish and gambusia.