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Re: Crossocheilus oblongus

>      The local fish dealer who has been trying valiantly to obtain some SAEs
> for his customers has gotten in what seem to be the Crossocheilus oblongus

Interesting!  I hope I could see them (and I hope I could even know for sure
how C. oblongus looks like...)  Could you describe them for me as well as
you can?  Any other differences from "false s." than clear fins?  How many
pairs of barbels?  If they turn out to be false s. anyway, go ahead and buy
one.  They are pretty, and go nicely along with a school of SAEs.  They even
eat some algae.

> was wondering if anyone had kept these fish much and whether it would be
> worth buying a few. I have a 30 gal. tank

I have kept one fish that might have been an oblongus for nearly a week.
That poor critter tried to swim through the hole in the bottom of a
flowerpot when I cleaned the tank and I didn't find it in time :-(  All I
can say is that it was very shy.  I guess that they like to munch some
soft green algae, but I have no idea if they will touch red algae.  Probably
not.  If you decide to buy, I'd be very interested on the behaviour.  I'm
nearly sure it is not going to attack any of its tankmates, but I don't know
if it will tolerate its own kind when it is adult.

> algae.  I am mostly wondering if they are not often kept because they are
> not commonly available or are they just not worth keeping?  

They are not commonly available, perhaps because they are not very
colourful.  They might be rare, too, but that's just a guess.  As long
as the average aquarist prefers to have albino tiger barbs, bubble-eyed
goldfish and long-finned rams, there is no big market for any grayish-
brown, too-normal-looking fish.  Any Garrinae fish (SAE relative) is 
worth of keeping, IMHO :-)

> Would they be any improvement over the Chinese Algae Eater?  

Any fish is an improvement over the CAE.  At least oblongus is prettier and
shouldn't suck slime from its tankmates.

Liisa Sarakontu                     INTERNET:    lsarakon at hila_hut.fi
Helsinki University of Technology   WWW homepage http://www.hut.fi/~lsarakon/