Nobody agrees which fish this is, and the tank size depends on it
Every other record here starts with the water. Siamese algae eaters need the animal settled first, because three of our four sources name a species the fourth says is almost certainly a different fish.
The three care sheets are consistent with each other. Aquarium Co-Op gives Crossocheilus oblongus, formerly C. siamensis. aqua-fish uses Crossocheilus siamensis. Aquarium Store Depot gives both names as alternatives.
Seriously Fish takes both apart. It records that C. siamensis is not a valid name, being a synonym of Epalzeorhynchos siamensis which is itself a synonym of Crossocheilus oblongus, a species described from Java. And on that species it is blunt: it was described as a blueish fish with yellow fins and is almost certainly not the SAE in the aquarium hobby.
What the hobby actually buys, per the same source, is one of several near-identical congeners. C. langei sensu amplo is the one most often referred to as Siamese algae eater. C. atrilimes is traded alongside it, and is the species that page is written for. It adds that there may also be other, potentially undescribed, species from Thailand being traded as C. siamensis.
This is not a pedantic argument, and station 04 prints it as the dispute. Seriously Fish measures its species at 75 mm standard length, three inches. The other three describe a fish of six inches or more. The tank a buyer needs follows from which of those two fish is in the bag, and not one of our four sources tells them how to know.
Why this record was written now
- The gap
- Eight thousand seven hundred searches a month for a fish sold as a solution to black beard algae, and no page here.
- What it changes
- It is the first record on this site whose sources disagree about the species, and the sixth with no blank in its nine fields.
- What it does not
- Three cautions and no refusals, which is also a first: on every pairing our sources contradict each other rather than agreeing on a no.
Siamese algae eater water temp, and everything else in the row
| Source | Temperature | pH | Hardness | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seriously Fish | 68 to 79 °F | 6.0 to 7.5 | 1 to 15 dGH | 75 mm SL, 3.0 in |
| Aquarium Co-Op | 68 to 80 °F | 6.0 to 8.0 | Soft to hard | 6 in, 15 cm |
| Aquarium Store Depot | 75 to 80 °F | 6.5 to 8.0 | 2 to 20 KH | 6 in, full size in about 2 years |
| aqua-fish | 73.4 to 80.6 °F | 6.5 to 8.0 | 4 to 18 dGH | 13 to 16 cm, 5.1 to 6.3 in |
On temperature the four bands share 75 to 79 °F and the row prints exactly that. The floor comes from Aquarium Store Depot at 75 and the ceiling from Seriously Fish at 26 C, which is 79. Note that aqua-fish’s floor is 23 C, 73.4 °F, so the row starts at 75 rather than 73 to stay inside every published band.
On pH the split is neat: the two sources that will go down to 6.0 stop at 7.5 or 8.0, and the two that start at 6.5 both go to 8.0. Six and a half to seven and a half is what all four contain.
On hardness two sources publish general hardness, overlapping from 4 to 15 dGH, 71 to 268 ppm. Aquarium Store Depot publishes 2 to 20 KH, which is carbonate hardness and not the same measurement, the same mismatch our clown loach record ran into with the same kind of source.
The size column is the one to read twice. Three sources cluster at six inches and one sits at three, and station 01 is the reason. Seriously Fish also notes that other Crossocheilus congeners reach 150 mm and need larger quarters, naming an undescribed C. sp. citripinnis at 150 mm and C. obscurus at at least 14.2 cm, so the six inch figures are entirely plausible for a fish that is not the one it wrote about.
Siamese algae eater tank size, and four answers on the group
The tank figures look like a disagreement and are mostly a consequence of the group figures, which are a real one.
The four tank figures
- 20 gallons is Aquarium Store Depot’s stated minimum, and the same guide recommends 30 in its own text.
- 40 gallons, 150 L, is what aqua-fish asks for a small group, and it is the smallest figure any source states for a group. It is what this record prints.
- A base of 120 by 30 cm, 48 by 12 in, about 108 liters, is what Seriously Fish asks for instead of a volume, with filtration rated 430 to 755 liters per hour on top.
- 50 to 55 gallons is Aquarium Co-Op’s figure, and it is for one fish rather than a group.
The four group figures
- One is fine, per Aquarium Co-Op: a single Siamese algae eater can do quite well by itself, but if you plan on buying a group of them, make sure you get at least three or more.
- Five or more, per aqua-fish.
- Six or more, per Seriously Fish, which gives the reason: the species exhibits a pecking order, can be shy if solitary, and a group prevents bullying.
- Eight to ten or more, per Aquarium Store Depot, which explicitly discourages keeping only three or four.
So one source keeps a single fish in 55 gallons and another keeps eight to ten in 20. Those two positions cannot both be about the same animal in the same tank, and the record prints five or six fish in 40 gallons because that is where the two middle sources sit.
The group question is not separable from the aggression question, which station 07 takes on its own: the source that will keep one fish alone is also the source that calls the species semi-aggressive towards its own kind.
Our stocking calculator works from the 40 gallon figure and our stocking page explains why we will not average four numbers this far apart into one.
The full record
| Field | Recorded | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum tank | 40 gal | Four figures across a range of nearly three to one, and the group size each one assumes is what separates them. aqua-fish asks for 150 L, 40 gallons, for a small group, which is the smallest figure stated for the group these sources ask for, and it is what the row prints. Aquarium Store Depot publishes 20 gallons as a minimum and then recommends 30 in the same guide, while asking for eight to ten fish. Aquarium Co-Op is the largest at a 50 to 55-gallon freshwater aquarium, and it is describing a single fish rather than a group. Seriously Fish gives no volume and asks for a base of 120 by 30 cm, 48 by 12 in, about 108 liters, plus filtration rated 430 to 755 liters per hour, because it asks for high water movement and dissolved oxygen. Read the four together and the tank is not the disagreement: the number of fish and the size they reach are. |
| Temperature | 75 to 79 °F | Four bands, and 75 to 79 °F is the span every one of them contains. Seriously Fish is the coolest at 20 to 26 C, 68 to 79 °F. Aquarium Co-Op gives 68 to 80 °F, 20 to 27 C. aqua-fish gives 23 to 27 C, 73.4 to 80.6 °F. Aquarium Store Depot is the narrowest at 75 °F to 80 °F. The floor is aqua-fish at 23 C, which is 73.4 °F, and Aquarium Store Depot at 75, so the row starts at 75 rather than 73 to stay inside every band. The ceiling is Seriously Fish at 26 C, 79 °F. |
| pH | 6.5 to 7.5 | Four bands and they meet in the middle. Seriously Fish: 6.0 to 7.5. Aquarium Co-Op: 6.0 to 8.0. aqua-fish and Aquarium Store Depot both give 6.5 to 8.0. So the two acid-tolerant sources stop at 7.5 and the two alkaline-tolerant ones start at 6.5, and the row prints the overlap the four share. |
| Hardness | 71 to 268 ppm | Two sources publish general hardness and they overlap from 4 to 15 dGH, which is 71 to 268 ppm. Seriously Fish: 1 to 15 dGH. aqua-fish: 4 to 18 dGH, converted on its own page to 71.43 to 321.43 ppm. Aquarium Store Depot publishes 2 to 20 KH, and that is carbonate hardness rather than general hardness, the same unit mismatch our clown loach record ran into. Aquarium Co-Op says only soft to hard water. |
| Adult size | 3 to 6.3 in | The row is wide because the sources are not measuring the same species, which station 01 takes in full. Seriously Fish gives 75 mm SL, about 3.0 in, for C. atrilimes, and notes in the same passage that other Crossocheilus congeners reach 150 mm and need larger quarters, naming an undescribed C. sp. citripinnis as a larger fish growing to 150 mm and C. obscurus as reaching at least 14.2 cm. Aquarium Co-Op says 6 inches, 15 cm. Aquarium Store Depot says 6 inches and adds that the fish reaches full length in about two years. aqua-fish gives 13 to 16 cm, 5.12 to 6.3 inch, which is the largest figure on the record. Three sources describing a six inch fish and one describing a three inch fish is not a rounding error, and no source on this record tells a buyer which one is in the shop tank. |
| Diet | Algae grazer, and it will eat plants | All four call it an algae eater and two of them warn about what else it grazes. Seriously Fish is the most specific and the least reassuring: C. atrilimes browses black beard algae but shows a preference for fine-leaved, higher plants such as Vesicularia spp., it feeds on aufwuchs in nature, high protein foods should be avoided, and it asks for a quality dried spirulina-based product plus blanched courgette and shelled peas. Aquarium Store Depot says the fish can damage plants if underfed and will pounce on aquarium plants. Aquarium Co-Op calls it omnivorous and lists flakes, wafers, freeze-dried foods, frozen fish food and blanched vegetables. aqua-fish asks for sinking algae wafers, spirulina pellets, blanched zucchini, spinach and cucumber, with occasional bloodworms or small crustaceans. The row says plants because two of the four sources say so and because the vegetable half of every food list points the same way. |
| Water column | Every surface, and it wants flow | No source states a layer in the words our other records use, and two of them describe the same fish: a grazer working hardscape in moving water. Seriously Fish records that it feeds on aufwuchs, the biofilm on submerged surfaces, in nature, and asks for high water movement and dissolved oxygen from external filters and powerheads rated 430 to 755 liters per hour. That is the opposite requirement to the still water our honey gourami and betta records ask for, and it is the reason this record and our otocinclus record share a layer on the tank mates matrix without sharing a tank setup. |
| Lifespan | 8 to 10 years | Two sources publish a figure and they nearly agree. aqua-fish: 8 to 10 years. Aquarium Store Depot: 10 years. Seriously Fish and Aquarium Co-Op publish no lifespan at all, which is the same pattern our honey gourami record found, where the most technical sources are the ones that decline to guess. |
| Growth rate | Full size in about two years | One source publishes it. Aquarium Store Depot: the fish reaches its full length of about 6 inches in around two years. Nobody else gives a rate, a stage or an age. Read against the size row it is worth knowing that a fish which reaches six inches in two years is not a fish that stays the size it was bought at, and read against the algae row it matters more: Aquarium Co-Op states that as they reach adulthood, their hefty size allows them to get the lion’s share of the fish food, so they are less likely to graze on algae. |
The same nine fields for every animal on this site are in the A to Z index.
Where our sources disagree
Every record here names a disagreement. On this one it is the identity of the animal, which is upstream of every figure on the page.
Aquarium Co-Op
Crossocheilus oblongus (formerly C. siamensis)
Seriously Fish
C. oblongus was described as a blueish fish with yellow fins and is almost certainly not the 'SAE' in the aquarium hobby.
What we record: we print both, and this is the one dispute on the site where taking neither side has a consequence a reader can feel. Seriously Fish is the only source that treats the name as a question at all: it records that C. siamensis is invalid, that it resolves to C. oblongus, a species described from Java, and that the fish the hobby calls the SAE is most often C. langei sensu amplo, with C. atrilimes traded alongside it and possibly other undescribed species from Thailand.
The other three sources give the disputed names without qualification. The consequence is the size row. Seriously Fish measures its species at 75 mm, three inches. The other three describe a fish of six inches or more.
A buyer choosing a tank from one of those numbers has a fifty percent chance of choosing from the wrong one, and no source on this record can tell them which fish is in the shop.
Siamese algae eater hair algae, black beard, and the part nobody advertises
What all four say siamese algae eaters eat
- Aquarium Co-Op: hair and black beard algae, BBA.
- Aquarium Store Depot: green algae and black beard algae, and it names hair algae too.
- aqua-fish: black beard algae and other soft algae, grazed off films.
- Seriously Fish: C. atrilimes browses black beard algae, and in nature feeds on aufwuchs, the biofilm on submerged surfaces.
Four out of four name black beard algae, which is unusual on this site and is the reason this fish is bought. Our water and health page collects the algae claims across every record, and this is the only one where the target is named by every source.
The sentence that should be on the shop tank
Aquarium Co-Op prints the catch and no other source repeats it: as they reach adulthood, their hefty size allows them to get the lion’s share of the fish food, so they are less likely to graze on algae.
Read that against the growth row on this record, where Aquarium Store Depot puts full size at about two years. A fish bought to clear black beard algae is, on those two sources together, most useful in the two years before it stops bothering.
Aquarium Store Depot reaches the same place from the other direction, saying the fish can damage plants if underfed and will pounce on aquarium plants. Feed it and it eats less algae; starve it and it eats your plants. That is not a contradiction between the sources, it is the working range of the animal, and it is the most useful thing on this page.
What else it eats: plants, and possibly your shrimp
The plant warning, and why it is a caution rather than a refusal
Seriously Fish states it plainly for its species: it browses black beard algae but shows a preference for fine-leaved, higher plants such as Vesicularia spp. It also says high protein foods should be avoided and asks for a spirulina-based dried product plus blanched courgette and shelled peas.
Our java moss record is Taxiphyllum barbieri. The trade sold that plant as Vesicularia dubyana for years and it is not in that genus, so the warning names the neighbor of the plant we hold. A genus away from a warning is not a refusal, so our tank mates grid carries the pairing as a caution with this paragraph as the reason.
Will it eat shrimp? Our sources say both
Aquarium Co-Op: this fish will eat dwarf shrimp, while it will leave most snails and larger shrimp alone. Aquarium Store Depot lists shrimp species among its compatible tank mates, with no qualification at all.
Our cherry shrimp record carries a 30 to 40 mm Neocaridina whose young hatch at about a millimeter, which is exactly the dwarf shrimp in the first sentence. Our amano shrimp record carries a 1 to 2 inch animal, which is the larger shrimp in the same sentence. So the two sources disagree, and the one that qualifies its answer splits the difference along a line our own records can be read against.
The record marks the cherry shrimp pairing a caution rather than a refusal, because a refusal on this site means a source we cite says no. Here one does and one does not.
Siamese algae eater tank mates, as the four name them
- Aquarium Co-Op: loaches, barbs, giant danios, cichlids and livebearers.
- Aquarium Store Depot: tetras, corydoras, loaches, danios, platys, guppies, bristlenose plecos and shrimp species. It refuses gouramis, cichlids and tiger barbs as aggressive species.
- aqua-fish: tetras, rasboras, rainbowfish and gouramis, avoiding aggressive cichlids or slow, delicate species.
- Seriously Fish: generally peaceful, and the compatibility note is about its own kind rather than about other species.
Two of those lists contradict each other twice. aqua-fish recommends gouramis and Aquarium Store Depot refuses them; Aquarium Co-Op recommends cichlids and both of the others refuse them. Our honey gourami record carries the gourami half of that as a caution, and the three cichlids we hold, the oscar, the angelfish and the discus, are refused or cautioned against plenty on their own records without needing this one.
Is a siamese algae eater aggressive? Two sources, opposite answers
This is the second flat contradiction on the record and it is about the fish’s character rather than its name.
- Aquarium Co-Op: they can be semi-aggressive towards their own kind, especially as they get older.
- Aquarium Store Depot: hardly aggressive and never territorial, described as peaceful and social.
- Seriously Fish: generally peaceful, and then the qualification neither of the others makes: the species exhibits a pecking order, can be shy if solitary, and should be kept in a group of six or more to prevent bullying.
The third source is the one that makes the first two readable. If a pecking order is normal for the species, then a tank with two or three fish in it will produce the semi-aggression Aquarium Co-Op describes, and a tank with eight will produce the peaceful social fish Aquarium Store Depot describes. The two answers are the same animal at different group sizes, which is what station 03 could not settle from the numbers alone.
Seriously Fish adds a detail that appears nowhere else and is worth watching for: on C. atrilimes the midlateral stripe becomes much broader and paler during sparring, while on C. langei the stripe pales without changing width. That is a behavior visible on the fish itself, and it is also, incidentally, one of the ways the two species are told apart.
Our own records store a temperament they never print, and this one stores peaceful with our sources split on its own kind. Our tank mates page prints all of them in one place and explains why the field is not one of the nine.
Siamese algae eater vs chinese algae eater, and the false SAE in between
Three fish are sold under names close enough to confuse, and two of our sources publish identification details. This is what they say, and none of it settles station 01: telling a true SAE from a flying fox is a different problem from telling one Crossocheilus species from another.
| Fish | Fins | Stripe and mouth | Size and temper |
|---|---|---|---|
| True SAE | Transparent, and completely clear per Aquarium Co-Op | A smooth black stripe head to tail, no flaps in the mouth corners, a pointed snout and two small barbels on the upper lip | 6 in per three sources, 3 in per Seriously Fish |
| Flying fox, the false SAE | Black top and bottom fins with orange-yellow tints | A smooth black stripe, and flaps in the mouth corners | not stated |
| Chinese algae eater | Brown to gold behind the stripe per Aquarium Co-Op, and 5 to 11 in on our own record | A craggy body stripe, and a suckermouth per Aquarium Co-Op | 11 in per Aquarium Co-Op, more aggressive, and poor for home aquariums per Aquarium Store Depot |
The Chinese algae eater is the one worth knowing by size. Aquarium Co-Op puts it at 11 inches with a suckermouth and brown to gold coloring behind a black stripe, and Aquarium Store Depot calls it poor for home aquariums outright. It is nearly twice the fish the six inch figures describe and almost four times the three inch one.
That fish now has a record of its own, and its own six sources go further than the two quoted here. Our chinese algae eater record carries Seriously Fish calling it largely unsuitable for the general community aquarium, with particularly high levels of aggression towards similar-looking fishes, and describing a fish that may attach itself to the flanks of larger tankmates in order to feed on their body mucus. Our own grid now refuses the pairing on that sentence, because no two fish on this site look more alike. The strangest confirmation is on that record too: the US Fish and Wildlife Service lists siamese algae-eater among the common names of the Chinese species.
What none of our sources provides is the identification that matters most. Seriously Fish gives the features that separate C. atrilimes from C. langei: atrilimes has one pair of rostral barbels, a midlateral stripe extending to the posterior extremity of the median caudal-fin rays, and one or two rows of faint dark spots below the lateral line, while langei has two pairs of barbels, an eye that is reddish-golden above the pupil and white below, an essentially straight lateral line passing through the centre of the dark body stripe
, brownish fins, and a dark blotch immediately in front of the anal fin. Those are the differences a buyer would need and cannot use in a shop tank.
The wild fish, and what it eats when nobody feeds it
Where it lives
Seriously Fish gives the distribution for the species its page covers: the type specimens were collected from the Nam Mang River, Vientiane Province, Laos, but the species is thought to occur throughout the Mekong and Chao Phraya drainages, so can also be found in Thailand and Cambodia. It adds the caveat that runs through this whole record, that striped Crossocheilus distributions in Thailand need further study because some populations may be undescribed species.
The habitat is a description of the tank this fish wants. It inhabits flowing streams and tributaries with substrates of boulders, pebbles, gravel and sand, often in area with submerged driftwood or tree roots. The water is clear and shallow enough for sunlight to reach the bottom, which is what grows the biofilm the fish browses, and the species moves to deeper, more turbid water at some times of year.
Three natural conditions follow from that and every one of them is a piece of equipment. Flowing water is the powerhead Seriously Fish asks for at 430 to 755 liters per hour. Boulders, pebbles and driftwood are the surfaces the biofilm grows on. Sunlight reaching the substrate is the light level that grows the algae the fish is bought to remove, which is the quiet joke inside this species: the conditions that feed it are the conditions that create its own food.
The food list, and what it is not
Aufwuchs is the word Seriously Fish uses for what these fish live on: the biofilm and the small organisms in it, grazed off submerged surfaces. In a tank all four sources ask for a vegetable diet with a little protein rather than the reverse.
- Seriously Fish: high protein foods should be avoided. A quality dried spirulina-based product, plus fresh vegetables such as blanched courgette and shelled peas.
- aqua-fish: sinking algae wafers, spirulina pellets, blanched zucchini, spinach and cucumber, with occasional live or frozen protein such as bloodworms and small crustaceans.
- Aquarium Store Depot: algae wafers, spirulina pellets and vegetables, with bloodworms and brine shrimp named as extras.
- Aquarium Co-Op: flakes, wafers, freeze-dried foods, frozen fish food and blanched vegetables.
Two of the four name live or frozen food and one warns against too much protein, which is the disagreement worth knowing when a well fed adult is the one that stops eating algae.
In a community tank
These fish are bought for a community tank rather than a species tank, and that is the setting all four sources describe. What none of them holds is a figure for how many other fish belong with them: the tank mate lists in station 06 are names rather than numbers, and our stocking page is where this site keeps the arithmetic those lists leave out.
Siamese algae eater breeding, and where the shop fish come from
Three sources address it and all three say the same thing in different strengths.
- Seriously Fish: reproduction is not thought to have occurred in captivity, and it notes the fish is farmed for the trade regardless.
- aqua-fish: it has not been successfully bred in home aquaria on a regular basis.
- Aquarium Store Depot: almost impossible to breed in your aquarium, and it says the fish is bred commercially using artificial hormones.
Aquarium Co-Op publishes nothing about breeding or sexing at all.
Sexing, for the two sources that try
Seriously Fish: sexually mature females are normally thicker-bodied than males, and young fish cannot be accurately sexed externally. aqua-fish: mature females are usually larger and fuller-bodied than males, but there are no clear external differences. Those two agree, and both of them say the difference is unusable on the size of fish a shop sells.
Put the three breeding statements beside the hormone note and the picture is the same as our clown loach record: a fish that arrives from a farm or a river rather than from anybody’s tank, and our breeding page is where this site collects the species that cannot be bred at home.
What this record will not answer
Which species you are buying
At least four Crossocheilus species are traded under this name, one source says so and the other three do not raise it. The identification features exist and cannot be used through glass.
How big it will get
Three inches or six, and that follows from the species rather than from the keeping. Both figures are on the record.
Whether it will eat your shrimp
One source says it eats dwarf shrimp, another lists shrimp as compatible. The grid prints the disagreement.
Whether it will eat your moss
Seriously Fish names Vesicularia, and the moss we hold is Taxiphyllum. Nobody publishes anything about the plant we actually have a record for.
How aggressive it is
Semi-aggressive with its own kind per one source, hardly aggressive and never territorial per another. Station 07 argues the group size explains both, and that argument is ours rather than any source’s.
How to breed it
Three sources say it is not done at home, and one says the trade uses artificial hormones. There is no method here to write.
Siamese algae eater questions, answered from the record
What is the scientific name of the siamese algae eater?
Our sources do not agree, which is the dispute on this record. Aquarium Co-Op gives Crossocheilus oblongus, formerly C. siamensis; aqua-fish uses C. siamensis; Aquarium Store Depot gives either. Seriously Fish says siamensis is an invalid name that resolves to C. oblongus, a species described from Java as a blueish fish with yellow fins, and that this is almost certainly not the SAE of the hobby, which it says is most often C. langei sensu amplo.
What is the siamese algae eater size when fully grown?
Six inches per Aquarium Co-Op and Aquarium Store Depot, 13 to 16 cm or 5.1 to 6.3 in per aqua-fish, and 75 mm standard length, three inches, per Seriously Fish for the species it writes about. Aquarium Store Depot adds that full length takes about two years. The gap is the species question rather than a measuring disagreement.
What tank size does a siamese algae eater need?
40 gallons is what this record prints, from aqua-fish, and it is the smallest figure stated for a group. Aquarium Store Depot publishes 20 gallons and recommends 30 in the same guide. Seriously Fish asks for a base of 120 by 30 cm plus filtration rated 430 to 755 liters per hour. Aquarium Co-Op asks for 50 to 55 gallons, for a single fish.
What water temperature does a siamese algae eater need?
75 to 79 °F, which is the span all four published bands contain. Seriously Fish gives 20 to 26 C, Aquarium Co-Op 68 to 80 °F, aqua-fish 23 to 27 C and Aquarium Store Depot 75 to 80 °F. It is one of the cooler bands on this site: our clown loach record prints 82 and our discus record starts at 85.
Does a siamese algae eater eat hair algae?
Yes, and every source names black beard algae too. Aquarium Co-Op: hair and black beard algae. Aquarium Store Depot: green algae and black beard algae, and it names hair algae. aqua-fish: black beard algae and other soft algae. Seriously Fish says its species browses black beard algae and feeds on aufwuchs in nature. The catch is in the same Aquarium Co-Op guide: as adults, their size lets them win at feeding time and they are less likely to graze on algae.
Do siamese algae eaters eat black beard algae?
All four of our sources say so, which does not happen often here. It is the reason the fish is bought and the reason this record exists. What no source promises is that it keeps doing it: one of them says a well fed adult grazes less.
How many siamese algae eaters should be kept together?
Four sources, four answers. Aquarium Co-Op keeps one alone and asks for at least three if you buy a group. aqua-fish asks for five or more. Seriously Fish asks for six or more, because the species has a pecking order and a group prevents bullying. Aquarium Store Depot asks for eight to ten or more and discourages three or four. The record prints five or six.
Are siamese algae eaters aggressive?
Our sources contradict each other. Aquarium Co-Op says they can be semi-aggressive towards their own kind, especially as they get older. Aquarium Store Depot says they are hardly aggressive and never territorial. Seriously Fish calls the species generally peaceful and adds that it exhibits a pecking order and should be kept in a group of six or more to prevent bullying, which is our reading of why the other two disagree.
Will a siamese algae eater eat shrimp?
One source says yes and one says no. Aquarium Co-Op: it will eat dwarf shrimp, and will leave most snails and larger shrimp alone. Aquarium Store Depot lists shrimp species as compatible tank mates. Our cherry shrimp is the dwarf shrimp in that sentence and our amano shrimp is the larger one, so the grid marks the cherry shrimp pairing a caution and prints both sources.
Will a siamese algae eater eat plants?
Two of the four say so. Seriously Fish says its species shows a preference for fine-leaved, higher plants such as Vesicularia spp. Aquarium Store Depot says the fish can damage plants if underfed and will pounce on aquarium plants. Our java moss record is Taxiphyllum barbieri, a genus the trade confused with Vesicularia for years, so the grid carries that pairing as a caution.
What is the siamese algae eater lifespan?
Eight to ten years. aqua-fish publishes 8 to 10 and Aquarium Store Depot publishes 10. Seriously Fish and Aquarium Co-Op publish no lifespan at all.
What is the difference between a siamese algae eater and a chinese algae eater?
Size, mouth and temper. Aquarium Co-Op puts the Chinese algae eater at 11 inches with a suckermouth and brown to gold coloring behind a black stripe, against a six inch SAE with clear fins. Aquarium Store Depot describes the Chinese fish as having a craggy stripe, being more aggressive, growing larger, and being poor for home aquariums.
How do you tell a true SAE from a false one?
By the fins and the mouth, per Aquarium Store Depot. A true SAE has transparent fins, a smooth black stripe from head to tail, no flaps in the corners of the mouth, a pointed snout with a sharp-cornered upper lip and two small barbels. A flying fox, the false SAE, has black top and bottom fins with orange-yellow tints and flaps in the mouth corners. That test does not answer which Crossocheilus species the true one is.
Can siamese algae eaters be bred at home?
Our sources say no. Seriously Fish: reproduction is not thought to have occurred in captivity. aqua-fish: not successfully bred in home aquaria on a regular basis. Aquarium Store Depot: almost impossible in your aquarium, and it says the trade breeds them commercially using artificial hormones.
What this fish needs that an otocinclus does not
Three things our sources ask for, and the first is the one most tanks fail.
- Flow, and a lot of it430 to 755 liters per hour is named by one source
- Hardscape with biofilm on itit feeds on aufwuchs in nature
- A tight lidone source keeps it in a tank with a tight-fitting lid
Every item our records ask for is gathered on the tank setup topic.
Nothing here is a paid link. It is the shortfall between what this record asks for and what a boxed kit contains.
How this record was compiled
- By
- Verified
- Sources
Seriously Fish, Crossocheilus atrilimes, Aquarium Co-Op, siamese algae eater care guide, Aquarium Store Depot and aqua-fish
- Conflicts
Printed above: three sources name a species the fourth says is almost certainly not this fish, and the two sizes that follow differ by a factor of two
- Not recorded
Nothing on the nine field table, which five other records here also manage. What is missing is the one thing a buyer needs: which of at least four Crossocheilus species is in the tank they are looking at