Re: The much feared CAE

[Wright Huntley <huntley1 at home_com>]

> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 21:23:06 -0400
> From: "Sylvia Kohler" <skohler at entermail_net>
> Subject: The much feared CAE

snip...

> 
> p.s. BTW, Catherine, I have to tell you that some people do keep these fish,
> and have reported no violent or carnivorous activities from them, even when
> full grown (at approx 8 inches or so).

I have never observed any particularly violent behavior, even from fairly
large ones who dig pits under rocks as daytime hiding spaces. They only try
to defend their hidey hole. 

Their method of operation is to graze through surface algae, looking for
infusoria as youngsters, but you will note little actual algae eaten, on
closer observation. [Pure carnivores from day 1!] They sure look like they
are cleaning the glass, though.

As they get older, they become more nocturnal, and feed from the slime coat
(and sometimes scales they can get loose) from the sides of fish that must
sleep at night. Only close observation will show the round sucker marks they
leave. The victims gradually die off from any one of dozens of diseases that
the damaged skin permits to invade. The CAE is almost never caught in the
act. Mysterious deaths just seem to soar in their tanks.

Ask your friends who keep them just how long their Mollies and Bettas last
in the CAE's tank. ;-)

Wright

-- 
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679  wright at killi dot net

       http://www.atchison.com/Killifish/BAKA-WCW-10.html

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The great killifish show and convention, combined with West Coast Live

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