Identifying an SAE

Hi Guys

I have never really understood how to identify a SAE.

Here are some pics of the Algae eaters my lfs gets! What do i look for? what are these?

Sorry for the bad quality pics! its my phone camera!

 

That's a Chinese algae eater, don't eat much algae as they get bigger and becomes aggressive and can grow quite large.
An SAE is not that easy to ID but here are a few things to look out for:
The fins should be clear and have no yellowing.
The black stripe should run all the way through the tail.
The black stripe should be ragged and not smooth.
The scales above black stripe should have black edges so it looks reticulated like a snake.

 

Okay the pics are really bad quality but that looks to me like a CAE.

The way to Identify a true SAE is to look at the mouth and the black thick line that runs through the v at the tail.

Their mouths also look more corry dorra like and they do not have the sucker type mouth.

HTH

 

Those are CAE, next time you are at Ultimates (where I can see those pics were taken) look for the ones they have marked as Flying Fox (wrongly marked), they in the tanks by the back door, those are true SAE.

 

Ok Thanks Guys!! i will give it a go!

Yes they were taken at ultimate! Do they always get them in as flying fox ?? I dont have a tank to put them in but when i do i want to ger true SAE's.

I will definitely use @boebie points to use! i hope i can get it right!! haha

 

@wrenchy, this is definitely a chinese algae eater.. one of the best ways to identify a true siamese algae eater is as @boebie has described but another serious tell tale of a true siamese algae eater are the barbels on the mouth. a true siamese algea eater has 2 barbels. not 4 and not 0. only 2. it looks very similar to the flying fox, but the fox has 4 barbels, and yet another false siamese algae eater has 0 barbels on the mouth. the trick is to look for the 2 barbels

the black stripe along the body also will not have the gold / yellow edging that the flying fox and false simenses has. its is only a nice thick black stripe as per @boebie's description.

on a side note, of all the fish we've mentioned above, the true siamese algae eater is the only one that will dwell peacefully with others of its kind, all the other's do not do well together in one tank, but with the true siamese algae eater you can keep a few of them in a tank in perfect harmony.

often at the lfs you'll see the flying fox, chinese algae eater and true siamese algae eater all together in the same tank, and if you watch their behavior you can see that the flying foxes are the trouble makers, the chinese algae eaters are stuck to the glass, and the true siamese algae eaters are generally just trying to avoid trouble.

 

Look at the mouth and body stripe and fin colours

SAE (Crossocheilus oblongus):
http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae/SAE_ID.jpg
http://www.okeanosgroup.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sae.jpg

CAE (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri):
http://www.hurstvilleaquarium.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/chineseAlgaeEater3.jpg
or the albino version
http://www.aquariumdomain.com/images/fish_freshwater/AlbinoChineseAlgaeEater2.jpg

flying fox (Epalzeorhynchos kalopterus):
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Epalzeorhynchos-kalopterus.jpg

 

@Anine spot on. these pics clearly show the differences we've described..

there is one more false siamese that looks more like the flying fox, but it has 0 barbels.. dont know the scientific name tho..

 

hey iv just bought some SAE they are quite small at the moment about 1.5 cm. funny thing is the LPS that i got them from thought they were flying fox ha ha. the pics posted so far are spot on!

 

@doug its so sad that many of the lps really dont know the difference themselves..

 

Wow guys thanks!! Those pictures are worth a thousand words!!! Added rep thanks again!!

 

howzit mydummyname ja the misinformation and bad addvice from pet LPS is far reaching you have to know whats what before you go. anyway make it more fun ha ha