Hello everyone

[catgirls]

Hello everyone,

we're Jackie and (daughter) Joanna from England. We're just upgrading from an 18 x 10 x 10 tropical tank to a 36 x 12 x 12 and spending some happy hours looking around the local shops for ideas for new fish!

We've spent a few days happily watching the bubbles in the new tank, and are looking forward to moving the fish across to their new home. We have 5 neon tetras, three sunset platies, one small algae eater and about 15 assorted guppies (m&f).

We also have 7 cats (hence the sig) and they enjoy looking at the fish as much as we do

 

[snowyangel]

Welcome to the forum Jackie and Joanna. Glad to see you want to learn more about your fish and to keep them healthy. Do you have any descriptions on your algae eater though? Some can grow very big(like plecostomus can grow over 12inches but are commonaly sold as 2inches) or very aggressive(like chinese algae eaters) so it's best to know ahead of time.

 

[catgirls]

Hi, and thanks for the welcome.

I'm afraid I don't know the breed of algae eater we have ... we did ask for a dwarf species when we bought him, but whether that's what we got, well who knows!

If we can ever get a good photo of him, we'll post it to see whether anyone can identify him for us. He's about 2" long, and doesn't seem to have grown much in the year we've had him.

 

[snowyangel]

Does your algae eater have a sucker mouth and can stick to the glass or does it have whiskers and just graze the bottom? Any colour descriptions?

 

[Sasha]

to the forum Jackie and Joanna!

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Hiya J&J, welcome to the forums!

 

[catgirls]

Does your algae eater have a sucker mouth and can stick to the glass or does it have whiskers and just graze the bottom? Any colour descriptions?

Hi snowyangel,

our algae eater has a brownish top half, a black stripe along each side, and a paler underbelly. He does have a sucker mouth and sticks to things, but doesn't have any whiskers.

He doesn't look as if he's going to get enormous!

 

[ryan]

Does your algae eater have a sucker mouth and can stick to the glass or does it have whiskers and just graze the bottom? Any colour descriptions?

Hi snowyangel,

our algae eater has a brownish top half, a black stripe along each side, and a paler underbelly. He does have a sucker mouth and sticks to things, but doesn't have any whiskers.

He doesn't look as if he's going to get enormous!

Sounds like an Otocinclus affinis or Oto, a gregarious little fish that does best in groups.

 

[catgirls]

That looks like him!

He did have a companion, who unfortunately died about a month ago. We'll have to get him a friend or two when he goes in the new, larger tank.

Thanks for the info

 

[victor]

Hi to you....and I bet your cats don't look at the fish with quite the same thoughts in mind as you do!!!