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Re: Algae eating shrimp
On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, Gitte wrote:
> I have been hearing so much about SAE's, that I thought I'd try my skill at
> recognizing them at the LFS (hey, I'm already using acronyms!). They do
> have a tank full (real ones), and I spoke to the manager of the fish room
> about them. He said "oh, but I have something better at eating algae than
> those".
Algae eating shrimp are ok, but...
1) you need a bunch of them to make an impact in a tank
2) many fish will eat them or harrass them
3) they're fairly expensive (at least here they are)
4) they don't seem to live very long and they usually don't breed
They're great if you have the money it takes to stock a tank with them
(what was the stocking guidance, something like one for every gallon of
tank capacity?), you don't have fish much larger than a fancy guppy and
you're willing to replace some of them now and then.
Otherwise, SAEs are a better choice.
I've never had trouble with my pair of larger SAE's getting too pushy. In
fact they leave other fish pretty much entirely alone. I have another,
smaller individual that looks exactly like the active but peaceful pair.
It was very aggressive toward another SAE (until the second fish jumped)
and it is moderately aggressive toward other fish. A few other people
have also reported aggressive behavior in SAEs.
False SAEs and Flying Fox can be quite aggressive. Those fish are easily
mistaken for SAEs and that mistake might be why your local fish store guys
think that SAEs get aggressive.
Roger Miller