Tank Mates For Chinese Algae Eater...

[DevUK]

Hi all! My first post, go gentle

I have a CAE who was living in my coldwater tank untill the middle of last year when he started getting aggressive towards my fancy goldfish. He's now been living in my original 30L starter tank for some time. Anyway, after some research I noted the temp range he should be kept at and have been slowly warming his tank.

I've now got a new tank for him which is approx 55L - 60cm x 30cm x 30cm. I'm going to transfer him into it in the next few days and I'd been thinking of what other fish to add.

I'm thinking of adding a group of say 5 tiger barbs, as they are described as happy in a group but can fin nip. My thinking is they'll leave the CAE alone and vice versa (plenty of hiding space under bog wood). I'm wondering if that will be too many fish for this tank though, and if anyone has any other suggestions for tank mates for the CAE (taking into account his aggression issues)?

Tank temps will be approx 24-26c

Thanks in advance!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi there, welcome to TFF

you seem to have done some research which is a great start and I'm glad your trying to change things around to get the environment right for your fish.

forgive me if i'm telling you something you already know, but this fish is going to get biiiiiiig. way to big for the new tank which is around 15 us gallons. He's gonna get to around a foot long so you need a tank at least 4'x1.5'x1.5' as an absolute minimum. Now he may be small now so maybe ok in that tank for a short while, but you have to be aware that you need to start saving for a big tank straight away if you wanna keep him.

So that's the first obstacle out of the way, you need to decide if you can provide him with an appropriate home, if you can great and we'll crack on, if not then you need to re-home this fish, being in the 15g tank for any length of time will stunt his growth and eventually kill him.

While he's relativley small something like tiger barbs could be a good choice, they're boisterous enough to stand up for themselves but shouldn't really bother him providing you get a big enough group of them. however your quite right a large group of these would put the little tank way overstocked as they get quite large. When he gets bigger your looking at medium-large aggressive cichlids and such like as tankmates

 

[DevUK]

Hmn, that sucks! He's about 5 inches at the moment, which is why I'm trying to get him from the *tiny* tank to the less tiny tank. Its far better than where he is now. I will look into getting a larger tank sometime this year. I originally wanted to get a large tank for my cold water, as I want a few more goldies (current coldwater tank is 70L with 1 fancy/veil tail so won't really support another) but I depending on how this new tropical tank goes I might well be tempted to go tropical

Any other suggestions for "interim" tank mates other than the tiger barbs (if they will over stock the aquarium as it is now)?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it does suck a bit! there's a few fish I wish weren't sold as much in lfs's and CAE's are definately one of them. Sadly I've lost count of the number of times I've spoken to someone who'se been sold one for a community tank and they're simply not suitable. While I'm sure you are working this out for yourself now it's an important lesson...... research before you buy fish. Never impulse buy and make sure you look up the fish before you get it. There's a great species index on this website for future reference, gives the fish's size, temprement and requirements.

at 5" he's already very nearly too big for the 15g tank, at 5" long his minimum tank size is 20"x8"x8" for now. he's only got to get to 6" to be too big for that tank. if you want to keep him you need a significantly bigger tank very soon.

honestly take the 15g tank back to the shop and swap it for something bigger then get a big group of tiger barbs to go with him for now.

 

[FishFriend11]

Have you thought about trading in the CAE to your LFS for something else?

 

[DevUK]

Have you thought about trading in the CAE to your LFS for something else?

I may consider this. I'm not sure if they'd take a CAE though I used to hate this fish because of the agression he showed my fancy but now I understand him more I actually quite like him. I'd be sad to trade him in.

I guess this is just one of those challenges.

The 15G tank is an eBay purchase so no taking it back. I'll keep my eyes open for a bigger tank. Funds are an issue, but I think I can do it, then its a problem of where to put it!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

trading him in is definately a consideration, you can't keep him in the 15g tank for very long so if you find you can't afford or don't have the space for a big tank then re-homing him is really the only right thing to do.

good luck with your descision and I hope you find a great home for him one way or the other.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

actually i maye have some better news for you, i've just been doing some more research into CAE's, having not kept them myself I thought I'd best double check that my comments and advice was OK.

While they can get as large as a foot and often do in the wild, in aquariums they seem to be a bit smaller, found a wide variety of max sizes all over the web ranging from about 6-10". So you may well find he doesn't need such a massive tank. He's still gonna need more than the 15g tank but if you aim for 30-40g that should give plenty of space for him while not being an enormous tank for you to find room for. As reports are varied you may still find he outgrows the tank but it shouldn't be for a while.

however the aggression apparently gets significantly worse from about 5/6" so you can expect his behaviour to deteriorate further. If you put him with barbs then make sure they are a decent size, I'd probably actually not get any tankmates for now until you've got a bigger tank for him then look in to some cichlids like convicts which are just as aggressive as him. Get pretty much as many fish as the tank can hold to spread any aggression out so you don't get just one fish being picked on.

Hope that helps a bit more, for more info on the species google gyrinchoeilus aymonieri