Number of SAE for 70 gal?

[jsoong]

I have decided to add some SAE's to try to get a handle on the BBA I've been battling. <For those that remembered my bleach experiment --- what a disaster! All plant samples lost all the leaves after a week or so, even those that looked OK initially - I am glad this was just an experiment & I did not bleach the whole tank!>

So all I did was bleach the rocks & stuff to get rid of the majority of the BBA, added more plant mass (hornwort & hygro), increased Excel to double recommended and decreased on ferts <The hornworts are growing 2-6" a day, so there must be lots of nurtients!>, and added 2 SAE.

I have only got the SAE's in the tank for a couple days, but I have noticed some aggression issues. The bigger SAE (just over 1") is chasing the smaller away, while the smaller one seems to want to school. No damage is done, but I don't think the stress is too good. Plus, they can spend their time eating the BBA rather than chasing each other!

I read somewhere that one should have an odd number of SAE's, and 2 will spend all day chasing each other. Is this true? When I first got them, they seem to be fine & stick together all the time, but now that they are in the big tank, things are different.

If more SAE's are needed so one is not picked on all the time, what is the max I can have? <I'll have to go looking .... as Big Al's is the only place I found true SAE's and I took the only 2 big ones .... the others are too small & likely will be expensive goldie snacks.>

 

[Plecosterone]

In my 75gal planted tank I originally had 4 SAEs which was fine to begin with. About a 1-1/2yrs later they where too big (6") and kept making a mess of my tank. I just took 3 out and 1 is left for now only because these guys are almost imposible to catch without ripping out the plants. As they get older they do not eat as much algae either and would rather wait to be fed with the rest of the fish. When they were small they did a great job though.