Algae eater

marisa · 08-20-03, 06:00 PM

Can anyone tell me what this is....(IDer thingie posted before kinda helped) and why he has white areas? He has always had them, he belongs to my roomates...anyways they look just like the rest of the "scales" but is it a disease or just his color????

<img src="http://members.rogers.com/mattl/algae.jpg">
<img src="http://members.rogers.com/mattl/algae2.jpg">

Marisa

JD@reptiles · 08-20-03, 06:10 PM

looks like a sucker fish, and the thing behind it looks like a african dwarf frog.

emerglife · 08-20-03, 06:53 PM

it looks like a chinese algae eater to me,

Shane Tesser · 08-20-03, 07:09 PM

It is a chinese algae eater...no doubt!!! There is a couple morph colours available in recent years. One that is popular in my area, as i know we had some when gasp my sister brought some home where all yellow. The same yellow/white that is in your room mates fish. You just have a cross between the regular pattern and the yellowish pattern....they do not yet breed true as far as i know...thus why the blotching

marisa · 08-20-03, 08:08 PM

Thanks. They are ugly things IMHO but they were curious.

Marisa

Shane Tesser · 08-20-03, 08:15 PM

They are the one fish that i wish was removed from the hobby. I love all fish..but these are terrible. So many ppl get taken in by them when they are young. They grow fast, rip the tank up, are skitso when older. Do nothing to algae. They are well known for latching themselves on deep bodied fish etc...bah..i dont like them! Tell your room mate to get ready for when that little cute fish reaches 12"

marisa · 08-20-03, 08:44 PM

I will. But they won't listen. LOL.

I think they are stunting it somehow because they have had it for over a year and its only like 3-4 inches long??? I know the tank is not too small because for the first part he was in a 60 gallon, and now lives in a 25 gallon which he moved into recently. It's basically just him, a couple african frogs and two guppies in there. Maybe its *not* large enough? They feed them a variety of foods and have a filter....so I dunno. Does it take a long time?

Marisa

AymKing · 08-27-03, 05:16 AM

That is a Chinese algea eater, though I've read only the babies eat algea. I like him, had one once in my 135 gallon, a hearty fish but chased everyone around.