I bought a cute little Siamese Algae eater to eat algae in my planted tank. There are no goldies in there.

That little bugger is so hungry he has eaten everything that I can give him and he is now nibbling at my plants! I have taken to pulling rocks out of every tank I have in the house and dropping them in for him. He eats them clean and looks for more. I simply do not have enough algae in the house to keep him satisfied. I have given some thought to dropping him into a goldie tank to eat what is on the glass and ornaments, but he is just a tiny sliver of a fishie and they are monsters compared to him! I am sure that they would eat him in one gulp - and possibly hurt themselves in the process - There have been others on here that tell of otos stuck in the goldfish mouths and such. That is not what I want to have happen!

So, what do I feed this little eating monster? Do I risk him and the goldies by putting them together? I tried to wall off the plant he liked the best, but he is waaaay to slippery - he managed to get into the plant's space and nibble away. He reminds me of the rabbits in the garden! They are cute, but sooo hungry and hard to keep out! I even tried sticking him in a breeding box to separate him, and filling the box with the most algae covered stones I have, but he climbed right over the edge of the box - he does not even seem to need to stay in the water all the time!

Silly, amazing fish.

That is one funny hungry fish, Daryl!
Maybe algae wafers is the thing to go then. I wouldn't risk him being eaten by some hungry goldie when you put him in with them. Give algae wafers a try......

I give mine sinking algae wafer and he will suck on the wafer till he finished it.. and do be prepared to lose your plant if you intend to put plants in there..

if not you can make your own algae stone...

using unwanted tank water, soaked a few rocks in it and leave it under the sun to grow algae..

another ultimate choice is to get a cemented tank to house the fish.. place the tank under the sun but cover it with mesh nets to reduce the glare of the sunlight.. cemented tank is known to grow algae very fast, and its ability ti keep water cool in direct sunlight.. some shade is also recommended..

So let me get this straight.....I get a fish so I can keep algae under control. But I have no algae, so now I have to cultivate algae to satisfy the fish.



I shall get the algae wafers......I really just wanted a nice, clean, simple planted tank.........

Are you sure he's actually "eating" your plants? My SAE's graze the algae on leaves but they've never damaged a plant. If its damaging plants, are you SURE you have a true SAE??

Mine will eat anything, they are eating monsters, but you can blanch a chunk of zuchanni for him, or some lettuce, toss in an algae wafer, shrimp pellets, whatever. They are not picky. Let me get you a pic of a true SAE so you can compare and make sure its not a False SAE or Flying Fox, but even so, I've never heard of either of those hurting plants...

Okay, in the pic below, you'll notice the fins are clear, and the black stripe extends all the way through the end of the tail. If its not a true SAE, the fins won't be clear, the strip will stop with the body and not extend into the tail. There are a few other things to look for, but those are the most obvious.