Chinese algae eater

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mousar

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 24, 2011
Messages
9
Location
Lancashire
Hi does anyone have a Chinese algae eater? We bought a 70 gallon fish tank off a friend a few months ago and we find he is a bit semi aggressive towards some of the fish. The tank is a community tank containing barbs, mollies, cichlid, widow tetras, we find he tends to bully the bala shark and the upside down cat fish. I was wondering if anyone has had similar problems, and whether we should remove him? When I say bully, I mean he gets territorial at the bottom and pushes fish away when eating.
 
I don't have one, but after doing some research, I found out that this is normal behavior for them to act aggressively to their tankmates.
 
I have read about them, and it does say they do tend to pick on Catfish. We bought the tank off a friend and the fish came with it. He obviously didn't do any research when he bought the tank. I think we will have to remove him. What does one do when it comes to removing fish? I don't want to kill him. I suppose I could try and sell him or see if the aquarium shop will take him back?
 
I used to have 1 in each of my tanks. They started out peaceful enough, but as they grew, so did their agression. I wound up giving them away to someone who had tanks with other fish who could better deal with it. I like these fish, but will likely never keep them again.
 
Well I've just read a few old threads on here and it seems they get more aggressive as they grow bigger, and may start killing other fish. Yesterday one of our black mollies died. We thought he may have had a disease or something, after checking his body and the the other fish (we do check the fish everyday) he had no signs of infection and I am now wondering if it was the CAE. I will definitely be removing him, even if it means putting him in another tank, apparently they are very hardy and will cope with lower water temp.
 
I have one in my 36 g and it doesn't bother the other fish. He just swims around and eats the algae off my plants.
 
I still don't get why they sell CAE commercially.

You can maybe phone pet shops in you area and hear if they will take it.

I would think that they sell them because people have unbalanced tanks with algae problems, and try to fix their problems by getting something labeled 'algae eater' rather than deal with it. As long as people keep buying them like this, they will keep getting sold. Don't hate the store, hate the consumer.
 
I would think that they sell them because people have unbalanced tanks with algae problems, and try to fix their problems by getting something labeled 'algae eater' rather than deal with it. As long as people keep buying them like this, they will keep getting sold. Don't hate the store, hate the consumer.
I agree. I have owned a few of them, and now I am not a fan.
It's the same reason petstores sell so many common plecos. People buy them and usually do not know better.

To the OP, glad you are re-homing him. Yeah, call around and see if some store will adopt him. Also, you can try craigslist.
 
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