I bought an algae eater for my 6 gal Eclipse. Within 24 hours he had scoured the walls and the plants. Do these fish eventually run out of food? I sure LOOKS cleaner in there.
My guess is you have a Chinese Algae Eater in there. I also had one in the Eclipse 6 (now in my 29 Gal). When the algae was gone, he ate flakes like the rest.
But there's always SOME algae in the tank if I understand right. There's also "slime" on the decorations and rocks esp that they'll eat.
But look at it this way, if you got him just to eliminate the algae, he did it, and if you were to lose him, well mission accomplished and all, eh?
He shares a tank with a rainbow shark who eats everything he can get his mouth on, including the pellets. The algae eater may never get a chance at the pellets.