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Siamese Algea eatters
I just bought a SAE this weekend (I think that they're also called
"flying foxes"). He's a great guy (about 1-1/2" long), but the guys
at the shop (who also happen to belong to the local aquarium club)
said that they're a little hard to find in stores (which I can attest
to, at least in Detroit, MI).
They apparently are very good algea eatters (in fact there was an
article about them in one of the aquarium magazines a month or two
ago, I can't remeber which right now). The guy at the shop said that
the batch he had in right now had been moved to a tank with out of
control algea. After about two days there hadn't been much change.
Then the owner stopped feeding them for about two days. The algea
disappered!
I did recieve a warning that they were somewhat teritorial (he said
like red tailed sharks, but I'm not familiar with those). I have only
one in my 25 gal. tank and his first few days have been quite. I an
pleasantly surprised that it's more active and visable than the
chinese algea eatter already in the tank. I haven't seen any signs of
aggression from or towards the other fish.
SAE's are supposed to be the best though. Perhaps that article or
some one else can suggest how many to put in. Maybe start with one
and see how it goes. Remember that they will eat flake food, so I
doubt they'll starve. But you may have to starve them to get them to
eat algea if they're used to flakes!
Anne