GIANT Siamese Algae Eater

[fishstixs05]

I stopped by petco when i was out shopping, and looked in the aquarium section. They have a plant section and occaisionaly have fish in it. I was looking in, and this tank was FILLED with plants. Sudddenly, a 3 inch SAE pops out of the plants. I go over to the guy working there, and ask if the fish in the tank are for sale. he goes and gets the manager, and he says yes, but the sae in there is very aggressive! huh, i wondered, it didn't look that big to be aggressive. They start moving the plants, and leering its head out of the plants like the T-rex in jurassic park, a giant 7-8 inch comes out of the plants. I decided to get it and try it out in my pond, and bring it in when it gets colder. I also got a 4 inch gold gourami. And guess what the best part is, they were FREE! They were donated to them, so they donated them to me!! So, my weekend ended up even. I sold four bags of halimeda at $4 a pice, bought raffle tickets at a marine aquarium society, ($10) and plants at petco($6, i felt bad for getting the fish for free so i bought some plants).
Anyway, back to topic, anyone have one of these SAE's get that big?
P.S. I will post pics if i can get one.

 

[cdawson]

siamese algae eater - max size 6". You may have over exagerated a tad on the size of this 't-rex' algae eater.


the Chinese algae eater however reaches a max size of 8", however I highly doubt that they reach that very often in home aquaria.

I have however seen some very large chinese algae eaters.

It's most likely a chinese algae eater, because they do get very aggressive with age and cannot be kept with many fish long term.
Siamese algae eaters are very docile, and can be kept with anything that won't hurt it.

 

[RocketSeason]

my chinese algae eaters maxed out at a little over 3 inches. They stayed that way for years.

 

[frshwaterfinatc]

That's pretty darn big for one in an aquarium, fishstixs05! Please post some pics!

 

[fishstixs05]

sry, chinese algae eater, and it is at lest 7 inches long, and 1 1/2-2 inches thck. will post pics soon. had one of these for two years, stayed at 2-3 inches long!

 

[cdawson]

my chinese algae eaters maxed out at a little over 3 inches. They stayed that way for years.

what size tank were they in? Their growth was probably stunted, CAE's get pretty big, I see large ones in the returns tank at big al's quite often. They're usually only about 5-6" though.

 

[RocketSeason]

29 gallon. They also shared the bottom with 2 small albino corys.

 

[Momotaro]

I have an SAE who is about 4 1/2" right now. Much like the CAE an SAE can also get a little aggressive as they get bigger.

Mike

 

[Mr Burns]

i just bought an SAE lookalike...not really sure what it is, but i'm almost certain it is not the siamensis species, which is what i wanted. however, i was told it will still eat algae no problem, but i'm concerned on how aggressive it will be later one...

 

[fishstixs05]

So do you think this guy will do okay in the pond while it is warm? and in a 55 gallon in the winter?

 

[fishstixs05]

So do you think this guy will do okay in the pond while it is warm? and in a 55 gallon in the winter?

 

[RocketSeason]

Have fun getting him out of the pond!!!!