Cleaning Algae in your tank

or doing the algea scrape with the flat edge of your gravel vac while doing water changes. i find my filter also does a pretty good job of sucking up the floaty bits

 

true SAE, thats a good question, i think it is, how could i check if it is a true SAE? the guy i bought it from is definitely a knowledgeable guy, and he reckon they are definitely SAE's.

 

http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/may08/siamese-algae-eater-id.htm

 

brilliant, thank you @Go-Big , i will do a close inspection tonight to see if what i have are true SAE's.
lets say they are, then they are failing miserably at keeping the BBA at bay, does this mean i should try and get more of them? as i only have 2.

 

I also have 2 SAE'S but I have some BBA as well and the SAE don't chow it. I actually find the CAE better in the algae department lol

 

Rosy barbs eat BBA as well.

 

thats the thing, more is not always better, you should then take a look at feeding, what do you feed the bottom feeders? and how much do you feed them? if you overfeed, then they start to get lazy, and only eat the food you give them, so you can tr to skip a day, i skip 2 days once a month, even my BN's start to "work" for the food, hehe

or you can just "under"feed them for a few days.....

 

No dude I can prove you wrong, they don't even get special food they get scraps of granular I feed the fish and not both of them are in the same tank.

 

i see my guppies snacking on the bba but iv yet to see my bulldog plec doing anything about it maybe i should put big daddy in to teach him

 

Very true Vez,
In addition as they get older they become less effective

 

Thanks Khalid, I have also noticed this, when I got them, they were very small, and very active. You would always see them on the glass, and on the wood….. but now that they are starting to get older, you almost never see them. I only see them when I feed them, then all 3 of them appear from the darkness, haha

At a certain point, I thought that the oldest female might have died, and in did not know about it, that’s when I started to feed them less, and I started noticing that they are more active, and that they clean the tank more, and the best part is, your water stays cleaner for longer!