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Re: The Great SAE search
Jeff wrote,
> Hello again,
> Another observation. Keep looking, asking and checking.
> In my quest at all the LFS for SAEs I am sure the wholesaler that Handles
> most of the stores in this area got numerous requests for these little
> guys. Well, after I got mine mail order from Uncle Neds I visited my
> regular LFS and guess what they said they just got in:) When I got back to
> the tanks and looked I found a batch of False SAE:( I looked and looked
> and not a one of them had a stripe that continued to the tail.
Was this the only feature you were basing your "false SAE" conclusion on?
Were these fish small (1 inch or so)? When I got my SAEs they were only
an inch long and the stripe could not be seen to go to the tail on one and
could just barely be detected on the other. I was not sure I was looking
at real SAEs but as luck would have it, the tank right beside had a bunch
of small false SAEs that allowed me to do a comparison on the spot. The
two species looked similar except for one glaring difference, and that was
that the false SAE had distinctly yellow fins and the real ones had
absolutely no color there.
As my pair of SAEs have grown up, the stripe to the tail has grown darker
and is now clear in both of them (at about 2 inches long). Their complete
decimation of my algae has left no doubt that they are for real! :-) :-)
So, at least from my experience, don't put too much weight on the stripe
on very young SAEs. You may have been looking at a tankful of the real
thing after all!
-Eric