How to feed an algae-eater with so many other pigs in the tank?

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Muse

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
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19
Hi!

My question today is about feeding my new Chinese Algae Eater.

When we set up our 55 gallon tank about a month ago, I knew the foyer was probably not the ideal spot, as there is a large palladium window just above the front door. The foyer sees a few hours of direct morning light and then the sun moves over top of the house. Unfortunately, this is the only place that a tank this large would fit. So, I resigned myself to extra cleaning and water changes.

After about a month, there are still no visible signs of algae in the tank, but I decided to go ahead and get a bottom feeder anyway to stay ahead of the game. I just figured I would have to supplement his/her diet with wafers for a while.

Imagine my surprise, after bringing home my new Chinese Algae Eater yesterday, to discover what ABSOLUTE PIGS my Plattys are!!! After giving them their normal dose of flakes and a couple of brine shrimp for a treat, I decided to drop in an algae wafer for 'Lollipop' (what we lovingly named our new sucker fish :lol:). Immediately, the Plattys were all over the wafer! My normally docile fish had suddenly turned into ravenous piglets! And for the first time since I got them, I started to see aggressive behavior from my plattys. They were pushing and shoving, and nipping, and chasing eachother away. It was crazy! They didn't stop until the wafer was entirely consumed and their bellies were all swollen from over-eating.

Today, when I tried to feed Lollipop again, the same thing happened! So, I'm left with a lot of questions and concerns:

1. How to I feed Lollipop without my Plattys eating all her food?
2. Am I not feeding my Plattys enough food, if they are still hungry when I put the algae wafer in the tank? Maybe I should feed them more?
3. How can I make sure that my Plattys don't over eat? (Feeding them first doesn't seem to help, just makes things worse because they eat all their food plus Lollipop's food too).

Thanks for any advice!
 
To get some algae, you can just throw some rocks or any decor from your aquarium and put them in tank water an leave them outside for a couple of days or two, and wa-lah! Algae.

On the side note...I suggest you return the CAE. It may eat algae when young, but after that will not and in fact prefer store bought foods. They also grow around a foot long and will become super aggressive and eat at your fish's slime coats. JMO.
 
To get some algae, you can just throw some rocks or any decor from your aquarium and put them in tank water an leave them outside for a couple of days or two, and wa-lah! Algae.

On the side note...I suggest you return the CAE. It may eat algae when young, but after that will not and in fact prefer store bought foods. They also grow around a foot long and will become super aggressive and eat at your fish's slime coats. JMO.

Very cool! Excellent tip!

Also, thanks for the heads up... didn't know about the CAE. She is soooooooo tiny right now (about1.5 inches long) and docile,! I find it hard to image she will really get that big or aggressive. But I'll take your word for it though! If I trade her in, what type of bottom feeder do you recommend?
 
Muse said:
Very cool! Excellent tip!

Also, thanks for the heads up... didn't know about the CAE. She is soooooooo tiny right now (about1.5 inches long) and docile,! I find it hard to image she will really get that big or aggressive. But I'll take your word for it though! If I trade her in, what type of bottom feeder do you recommend?

Just a matter of time. It's like a cougar, cute when young, killer by nature. I like panda coradoras. I also like bristlenose pleco for algae control
 
Muse said:
Very cool! Excellent tip!

Also, thanks for the heads up... didn't know about the CAE. She is soooooooo tiny right now (about1.5 inches long) and docile,! I find it hard to image she will really get that big or aggressive. But I'll take your word for it though! If I trade her in, what type of bottom feeder do you recommend?

Well, it really all depends on the individual fish, but I've heard too many horror stories on CAEs that I would risk it.

A good alternative to CAE's are SAE's, Siamese algae eaters. Not as aggressive and very good algae eaters. Also any small plecos, or otos would work as well. Cories aren't algae eaters but are very good, active and interesting bottom feeders :)
 
Also, in nature fish eat when given the chance, and in captivity over eat if given the chance.
 
as ive said on previous threads, id sooner suck the algae of my glass with my own mouth than let a CAE in my tank. this is JMO. +1 to bruins, hes right on that, and i know a place that sells *DEHYDRATED freshwater algae. not like petco or petsmart, buand its safe to use it. **its alot more expensive then an "algae farm", but if you are lazy and/or impatient (like me:)) then its a pretty good substitue.




*by dehydrated, i mean pour-hot-water-and-add-to-tank. its really quite safe, and algae eaters, like my otos, and im guessing a baby CAE as well, find it appetizing. if only i can remember the name of the place...

**my LA teacher would faint at the sight of that sentence :brows:
 
I have a CAE that has always been good to tankmates (2+ years old) , so I wouldn't be so quick to label them as terrors. I think some people do have personal experiences with them but a lot of information is just repeated by hearsay. There's another popular forum where the same thing is perpetuated about Zebra danios. If you didn't know any better you'd think they were absolutely impossible tank terrors.

I have heard a lot of horror stories about them but there are several people who have kept them long term without any issue as well. They are definitely a spazzy fish that is difficult to catch.

CAEs will eat pretty much anything you put in there so you don't have to specially feed him if you don't want to, just get something like large pellets or wafers to add during feeding time to give him a chance. Since it seems like you are doing that, I'd just keep doing that, if it gets hungry enough it will jump in there and get some.
 
I have a CAE that has always been good to tankmates (2+ years old) , so I wouldn't be so quick to label them as terrors. I think some people do have personal experiences with them but a lot of information is just repeated by hearsay. There's another popular forum where the same thing is perpetuated about Zebra danios. If you didn't know any better you'd think they were absolutely impossible tank terrors.

I have heard a lot of horror stories about them but there are several people who have kept them long term without any issue as well. They are definitely a spazzy fish that is difficult to catch.

CAEs will eat pretty much anything you put in there so you don't have to specially feed him if you don't want to, just get something like large pellets or wafers to add during feeding time to give him a chance. Since it seems like you are doing that, I'd just keep doing that, if it gets hungry enough it will jump in there and get some.

mine killed a goldfish that at the time was bigger than he was. just sayin

and as has been said above,they will eat pretty much anything(except algae lol)
 
How did it kill a goldfish exactly? Just curious.

I've kept mine in a few different setups (everything from angelfish to nanos) and haven't had any aggression issues that I can recall, the only problem I've ever had is him jumping into other tanks. Might put him in the pond at some point to see how he does.
 
Well I've only had Lollipop since yesterday, but so far she is minding her own business. She likes to hang out in the rocky caves on my large stone. So far, only the Plattys have harassed her. The couple times she tried to get close to the algae wafer, they (the Plattys) chased her away.

Now I'm confused if I should keep her or not. Guess I'll have to do a little more research.
 
How did it kill a goldfish exactly? Just curious.

I've kept mine in a few different setups (everything from angelfish to nanos) and haven't had any aggression issues that I can recall, the only problem I've ever had is him jumping into other tanks. Might put him in the pond at some point to see how he does.
he would constantly suck on it until he managed to stress it to death. there were a bunch of little,round scars on the goldfishes body. i thought they were playing when i first saw it(newbie)
 
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