Cae Trouble...

[BobbyBray]

I'm sure questions about CAE come up all the time, and I've of course found out after I purchased mine that he's not as friendly as the LFS peeps made him out to be. I will give him credit for cleaning the tank though, its spotless now, but he seems to be picking on my little cory, to the point where the cory is just hiding and not swimming around much anymore. Its currently in a 10 gallon tank with two tetras, two rainbowfish and a cherry barb. Normally I'd just take him out and put him in my other tank, but its currently going through a fishless cycle, and I'm sure the high ammonia wouldn't be very pleasant for the little guy.

I may try asking my LFS if they'd be willing to take him back, but I didn't know if there was anything else that you guys might suggest trying.

 

[WILDER]

Is it possible to issolate him till you can move him to a bigger tank or rehome him.
You could always put a petition up in the tank.
Here some info on him.
http/www.aquatic-gardeners.org/cyprinid.html

 

[BobbyBray]

I thought about getting some sort of plastic container/box with slits to allow water flow and still isolate him. But I'm fairly early into the fishless cycle of my other tank, how long could I keep him isolated like that?

 

[WILDER]

I think the box would just stress him out.
You can divide the tank into two halfs with plastic petitions. I would do that for now.
Just hope he dosn't suck his way to the top of the petition then flip over to the other side lol.

I would take him back to the lfs and tell them that you told me allowed of fibbies about him.

 

[BobbyBray]

Just got back from the LFS and they said they'd take it back no problem as long as the fish is healthy. I was looking around for a possible replacement to the CAE, and a Octocinclus caught my eye. Think one of those would be a good tank mate for some tetras and corys in a 10 gallon?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah he needs to go back to the shop

otto's are a good choice for algae eating and they don't grow up to be big or agressive so that's a good start, few things about them though

1 - they need to be kept in groups so you need to get at least 3
2 - they are finicky to acclimitise and do best in mature tanks
3 - they need a constant supply of algae and often starve in tanks that don't have enough, you're best to culture it by getting two rocks and having one sat in the tank and one sat in some water in a sunny spot like a windowsill, when the one in the tank is cleaned off swap them over, this will keep a steady supply of algae for them.

 

[BobbyBray]

Interesting, thanks for the advice! Though up here in Alaska, we aren't exactly known for getting tons of sunlight in the winter, now the summer on the other hand...