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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Aggressive Algae Eater

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18 Feb 2008 21:37 #1 by dazzler (darren tierney)
Hi everyone, sorry to bother you all but another problem has arisen.

Recently the algae eater I have has become quite aggressive with the Dwarf Gourami. It's not that he is nipping him but more sucking his scales.

Every opportunity he get's he is chasing him.

What should I do?

Many Thanks,

Darren

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18 Feb 2008 22:14 #2 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Unfortunately you wont be able to change the algae eater's aggressive behavior. He/she will keep harassing the Gourami and other fish.
These are fine when they are young but as they get older they tend to get more aggressive.
This is a common problem.
The only real solution is to get rid of it and if you were using it for algae control get some Otto's. (Otocinclus affinis ).

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20 Feb 2008 09:30 #3 by Cardnim (Andrew Hanley)
Sorry to hear that dazzler.

Whaat your fish is doing is acutally sucking the \"slime coat\" from the gourami!!
thats not good at all and the Gourami wont last long with that sort of unwelcome attention.

My advise would be to get rid of the algae eater, as getting rid of the gourami might just cause the algae eater to move onto another fish in your tank.

I would also suggest that you have bought a CHINESE algae eater, not the SIAMESE algae eater. They look almost identical, but the chinese is known for more agressive behaviour.
Unfortunately, the siamese algae eater can be agressive too, especially as this is actually a shoaling fish, so should be kept with no less than 5 of its own kind; but most poeople just have 1 or 2.

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20 Feb 2008 12:10 #4 by Peter OB (Peter O'Brien)
I agree with all of the above.

My algae eater has my tank spotless but the side effect is that my Cory population is nearly gone.

I got mine off Didinho, he got rid of it as it was stressing out his discus by sucking their slime coating too.

Smoke me a Kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.

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28 Feb 2008 01:08 #5 by Trillian (Mary Russell)
Cardnim wrote:

I would also suggest that you have bought a CHINESE algae eater (CAE), not the SIAMESE algae eater (SAE). They look almost identical


Actually, the SAE actually looks almost identical to the Flying Fox except the latter has an extra white stripe as you can see below. The CAE is very different and is also known as a Sucking Loach. They can be nasty little blighters, as you've discovered. The SAE is very peaceful and also a very efficient algae eater. :)

Siamese Algae Eater

Flying Fox

Chinese Algae Eater

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28 Feb 2008 20:47 #6 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
imo the best and least agressive of the aldae eaters isthe octocinclus, the are small but by god do they keep algae at bey , i've kept them with discus and never had a problem with them sucking the sides off my fish, plus algae is none existant in my tanks they live in

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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28 Feb 2008 21:04 #7 by serratus (Drew Latimer)
There are a few lookalikes, but in the true siamese algae eater/siamese flying fox (crossocheilus siamensis) the black stripe runs into the tail in the others stops at the caudal penduncle (were the tail meets the body, the real one is quite rare in the trade most being false!!! (our are the real ones)

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28 Feb 2008 23:45 #8 by Trillian (Mary Russell)
sheag35 wrote:

imo the best and least agressive of the aldae eaters isthe octocinclus, the are small but by god do they keep algae at bey , i've kept them with discus and never had a problem with them sucking the sides off my fish, plus algae is none existant in my tanks they live in


I definitely agree. I have a Bristlenose Plec in one tank and an SAE in the other. Both are lovely fish and did a certain amount of algae eating. However, it wasn't until I added four Otos to each tank that I saw a significant decline in algae - superb little fish. :)

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29 Feb 2008 12:46 #9 by dazzler (darren tierney)
An update on this:

I can see from the pictures it is a Chinese algae eater.

Anyway while I was away for 2 days the Algae eater essentially destroyed my Dwarf Gourami. When I got back the poor Gourami was left in a terrible state and died the next day. I brought the Algae Eater back to the shop and have exchanged for a Bristlenose Plec and I have to say there is no comparison. The Bristlenose is a joy to keep. Only problem is he is not half as good as the algae eater for clearing algae!

Later!

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