CAE chowing other fish?

Howzit Fishpeople,

A while back my 30cm tank started to develop an Algae problem, not to worry, I did research and set of to find a "flying fox" / "Siamese Algae Eater" .... alas I was unable to procure and went home with a "Chinese Algae eater".
This dude proved to be ferocious and in no time the tank was sparkly clean. A bit later I added 5 x Black Widow Tetra's.

The weekend I realized that one Black Widow is missing.
Is it possible that the CAE turned on one of the fishies and chowed it?

If so, I plan to relocate the CAE to my larger 90cm tank which has some good algae waiting, but I read somewhere that CAE should not be put with large flat bodied fish like Silver dollars and Angels.
Currently the 90cm has, 3 x Silver Dollar, 4 angels, 4 Clown Loaches and 1 Bristlenose. (The 90cm will be replaced by a 1,2m in the near future)

Looking forward to your expert opinions and advice

 

Typical CAE behaviour this is the worst fish to get to clean algae as they become super agressive towards other fish litrally sucking the scales off their bodies. If you look under fish to avoid this is one of them, your in the same boat as alot of us were when we started i returned mine after a month back to the petshop. The best fish for the job is a TRUE siamese algae eater and otocinclus both very hard to procure sometimes. My advice is try and get that CAE back to the petshop as it will always be very very agressive, maybe someone else can tel you what the best option would be if this is not a possiblity. Im sorry if i may sound like im ranting this is just one of "those" fish the LFS never ever inform people properly about. And please dont go the pleco route unless you have a large enough tank and theyre not really the solution either(the bristlenose will be fine though )

 

Hi there

That's just the thing - Black Widows do have pretty flat bodies, which could put them at risk from attacks from CAEs. These fish are known to sometimes attach to the sides of flat fish and feed on the slime found on the exterior of the fish, which could lead to injury and death.

However, there is no definite answer here, since your CAE may not have been the criminal. Your fish may have died off for other reasons, and the CAE simply scavenged the body, leaving no evidence.

Keep an eye out.

 

This is very cruel, but honestly the way I feel about these @#$%& fish, take the CAE out of your tank and throw it in the garden for the birds to feed on. Lol - just joking. They are amazing algae eaters while they are small but once they grow a bit they turn into lazy, agro, demonspawned fish killers.

I lost a lot of fish before I did research on them. The general consensus is that they will try to attach to larger, flat bodied fish, but make no mistake - they will target the smaller ones too. All the dead fish I found, during the birth of my hatred, died with a puncture mark on the body. None were however missing - so I would suggest that you search for a the body of your missing widow. Chances are pretty slim that a baby CAE would kill other fish though - imo

 

I had a CAE once and I will never get another

 

I cringe every time i walk in a LFS and see a school of these :afraid: This is one of the reasons im such an advocate for betta rights if you want to call it that. If i see you standing infront of a betta tank about to buy one my first question will be -> do you have a heater for that, the usual response i was told i didnt need one, the next would be u realise they need atleast a 1ft tank. You see this is where lfs mess ppl around they dont inform them what they trully need and are just after the money. They tell you it will eat algae just fail to mention how its going to get eventually and how big its also going to get.

 

Thanks for all the advice, I fully agree with you, the LFS do not give you all the facts when they sell you the stuff.
The CAE was labelled only as Algae Eater, only when I got home did I manage to identify it correctly as a CAE, (and now I am able to spot them with one eye closed at 20 meters)
I plan to take it back to the LFS and will never make this mistake again.

I think my best move is to relocate the Black Widows to my big tank until I can take the CAE back.