Chineese algea eater

[Tropicalfishfn]

i read some were that this fish sucks mucus off of other fish. I own one and i have never seen it do that before. Is this true ?

 

[wetwetwet]

There's a few species sold as cae/sae but the sucking of mucus I don't think I've heard of

 

[Feline]

I used to keep one b4 n it's so aggressive, not only will it try to suck the mucus off the tankmates, it liked to chase them around too!

I've also seen them stuck on the skin of gouramis, sucking up the mucus in my lfs!

 

[smb]

It's true.

Chinese algea eaters, if it's the same species that I think you mean (I don't know any common names) will start out eating algea, but then turn into a predator sometimes later on.

IME, most algea eaters will turn and go after other fish at night when they are more active and the fish aren't as active, if they don't have enough to eat.

That's why I always suggest a diet of zuchinni, cucumbers and spirulina discs for them no matter how much algea is in the tank. Sometimes they won't even touch the algea at all.

 

[-=DG=-]

I dunno if this is the same thing, but my SAE used to do something strange a year or so back. He would swim up to the top when my Acei used to swim. Then he would swim to the side of the Acei and start sucking/scraping at their sides!! Stange thing is that as far as i could tell, the Acei's didnt mind. They even held still . But as their scales were coming off, i would poke my net in and scare him off when i saw him doing it and eventually he stopped doing this.

Strange hey?