Golden-Algae eater - What should I do??

[Patwa]

I just removed one the little buggers. My method was simple. I put a ceramic cave with a bottom in the tank. After a couple of days he naturally claimed it as his territory. I reached in and lifted the cave out with him inside it.

hmm...that's basically what i'm expecting to happen when I try out the 2L bottle trap thing....he'll move in and take (the bait) it for himself...that's when i'll pull it up...

but i guess the only diff is that your cave was quite dark...and i'll be dealing with a plastic see-throught bottle....we'll see.

Zach.

 

[ferret]

I removed mine yesterday. He's been replaced by a tiiiny little baby rubberlipped pleco. He just won't leave those goldfish alone

 

[Patwa]

I just caught him!

check out the couple pics (in my gallery) I took of the trap setup and then the pic of the captured golden algae eater.

I sort of based it on the bottle trap design, but added a few updates.

sometimes I just amaze myself!

Zach.

 

[MicroFish]

I must be the only person alive who actually likes these fish... we've had ours for a while and though he's a bit on the territorial side, he isn't agressive to my other fish. I have him in a 55gal barb tank where he can't really pick on anyone without getting picked on himself and he's doing fine. He eats FAR more algae than that lazy bum pleco...

I would get a larger tank for the GAE and give him some fairly self-assured tankmates. Don't flush him or anything, he deserves better than that.

Sheila

 

[Patwa]

I would get a larger tank for the GAE and give him some fairly self-assured tankmates. Don't flush him or anything, he deserves better than that.

Sheila

haha..i don't flush my fish no matter what...that's why my lfs (and many others) accept trade ins.

no worries....I put him in my puffer tank....his new friends are 2 South American puffers...and he's doing fine.

Zach.

 

[jhd]

Good work Patwa,
i got mine at night with small flashlight in my teeth. They seem not to be able to see green net in the dark.
Unfortunately GAE prefer to rasp on fish when they are bigger. The name is kinda misleading.

 

[millym]

good on you for catching him, we've given ours a temporary reprieve( i know i know not a good idea) im having a hard time trying to convince my other half he needs to go!!!(the cae that is, not my other half) but im keeping a beady eye on him so he'd better be good. just feel really mean taking a fish back & seeing him in a boring small lfs tank again even though i know he'll probably get a good home. i know he will have to go & soon but dont have the heart at the moment.

 

[Patwa]

good on you for catching him, we've given ours a temporary reprieve( i know i know not a good idea) im having a hard time trying to convince my other half he needs to go!!!(the cae that is, not my other half) but im keeping a beady eye on him so he'd better be good. just feel really mean taking a fish back & seeing him in a boring small lfs tank again even though i know he'll probably get a good home. i know he will have to go & soon but dont have the heart at the moment.

well if he's just doing his territorial thing once in a while I wouldn't worry too much...but if he's doing it a lot, then that would mean your other fish might start feeling the stress...

Hold old is your CAE??? length?? When I originally bought my GAE, he was pretty small, and all he did was eat and eat...as he grew larger, he started to chase around the others...that's when I began to really worry.....(my GAE is currently at 4.5" or so)

If possible, i'd recommend taking him out asap...just bite the bullet and try and get him out.

Zach.

 

[millym]

hi
hes about 3 inches long - i know we have to do it i guess this weekend. we dont want the other fish bullied or stressed. at the moment he chases the corys if they get too close but hes not picked on anything else......yet

 

[Kerrinne]

When do the GAE start to grow? I've had mine for about five or six weeks now, and he doesn't appear to be getting any longer. I'm worried now from what I hear that he will hurt my two tetras in there with him. He hasn't been aggressive to him, in fact sometimes the tetras (Buenos Aries flavor) team up and chase him around instead.

If he's going to grow, I hope he doesn't start until tax returns when I can buy a larger tank!

10 gal - GAE, 2 buenas aries tetras
1 small bowl - blue/purple betta
1 large bowl - 3 glowlight tetras in their two week inspection period.

Yes, we just bought 3 new fish for the first time since our crisis now that my tank is stable!

 

[rabbit]

no one seems to have mentioned it, but if it is an Chinese/golden algae eater, the get VERY territorial as they mature, they become pretty bad algae eaters, and Im told they actually grow to be quite large.
Course I was only told all this AFTER Id bought 6 of the things. (They were on sale) :?