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Re: Mayaca and SAEs
>They have a voracious appetite, and when there is
>nothing to eat they may work on these soft leave plants.
>Stangely enough, when the Najas leaves are at the surface, the SAE's do
>not eat the leaves. They just clean them. It seems as though they have
>too much trouble working the suface of the water and the leaves that are
>there. Quite an interesting fish! Do yours eat any Mayaca that
>has reached the water surface?
I have just moved a few pieces of Mayaca to another tank for it to
regenerate. There is currently not enough Mayaca to even get to the half way
point.
Regarding the SAE's feeding behavior... the very first tank I put my SAEs in
four years ago was a 40 gallon tank with red algae. The six fish quickly
eliminated essentially all the algae, except for some long filaments that
were growing out from the holes of the submerged Eheim filter spray bar.
Even after a few months, this algae remained, but was the only visible red
algae in the tank. I replace the spray bar with another one and dropped the
red algae covered spray bar to the bottom of the tank, and in no time the
algae was gone.
This is another example of them not feeding near the surface. I had
attibuted it to the current, but its position may be the important variable.
I checked this morning, and I still have red algae on the active spray bar.
I did another switch, but this time moved the static bar to a position on
the front glass near the water surface. My eyes will be pealed.
Neil Frank Aquatic Gardeners Association Raleigh, NC