Who Knew?

[ostrow]

Been looking all over for Siamese Algae Eaters. Nobody in the Chicago Metropolitan area has them, many otherwise good stores never even heard of them! Couldn't find them on Aquabid or other reasonably priced suppliers.

Meanwhile, the plants get covered in algae...

And on a whim I called PetSmart (for you folk in GB, well, it's a lousy place. My 2 yr old son calls it "The Really Bad Fishy Store"). And they had em, and Otos. For a dollar each!

They look healthy (the SAE has a bit of a nipped fin but probably during transport).

Always a risk putting fish from there in a tank, but the guy at this place does know what he's doing. And this tank was lively. So we'll see.

Anyway, at a buck you gotta try em, and noone else has em.

 

[cryosi]

petsmart! think we have that, really bad fish place, well pet store...

 

[William]

Renamed pets at home, the one near me didn't use to be too bad they had a knowledgeable fish guy!! Which is very rare for such a big chain store, the food/test kitsprices are cheaper too I did see one really bad one though with lots of dead fish

 

[slt]

yes theres 1 a few miles from me, pet city, none of them no about the poor fish

 

[cryosi]

we have one in portsmouth! always empty and i only been there 2 times cos i was curious test kits cheap heheh i may need a ph one lol

 

[ostrow]

Thanks for reminding me, TOO LATE!!

I needed a NitrAte test kit to go with my "Master" (HA!) test kit.

Well, this Petsmart had a tank for clown loaches that was empty. They had clowns in many other tanks though, several COVERED in white spot

The guy knows what he's doing, but methinks he has little work with, and when he's not there......

But hopefully these SAEs and Otos will eat the algae. Once they do that, I don't really care what happenes to them, so hopefully they'll chow it all down really really fast!!!

 

[cryosi]

my ancistrus are doing that in 2 tanks lol whats goodis they are brown ones in small tank but the larger tanki managed to get black ones very nice looking with yellos spots/blotches

 

[wetwetwet]

Before buying your siamese algae eaters check

This site

You could very easily pick up the wrong one!

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

Speaking of algae eaters can anyone suggest a peaceful algae eater that is quite small say max 5"?

 

[gadazobe]

How about a bristlenose? They grow to about 4-5" and are very peaceful. I've got one in my cichlid tank - he does a great job with the algae and there are no problems with the other inmates I him - he's cute.

 

[Thomas A. Anderson]

Thanks for that qad I'll look into it

 

[wetwetwet]

You could also try some 'ottos' upto about 2" they do a great job on the plants - get a few

 

[ostrow]

Yeah, that's an essential link for getting the true SAE. Indeed, this is the real deal 100%!!!

And that solves creamcheese's question too ... the SAE gets to about 5" max. Or Otos, which I also got at, yes, PetSmart.

 

[wetwetwet]

Glad to be of help

 

[ostrow]

So then the question is, I've got medium sized plants in the tank:
1 sword, 1 red wendtii and water wisteria (5 sprigs or so). All have brown hairy like algae on them.

How long should I expect 2 Otos and one SAE to take to get a noticable amount of it off???