On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 06:35:16 GMT, Liisa Sarakontu
wrote:

wrote in
roups.com:

I have a 58G tank with 4 small False SAEs, 8 rasboras and 1 fully grown
Blue Gourami. I would like to add some Real SAEs.Will real SAEs and
false SAEs get along? Also how many real SAEs can I add in this tank
without it being overcrowded or not enough territory for the false and
real SAEs? (I heard real SAEs can get pretty big)?

True SAEs are schooling fish and they are not happy alone. They might start
hurting other fish if they don't have their own species to play with, so
don't buy ONE. Don't get them at all unless you are going to have a group
of them. If everything else is ok, they might do well as a pair but they
prefer bigger groups. SAEs don't normally harass other fish, no matter if
they look like SAEs or not.

I have one SAE in a 10 gal tank with 2 Platies and 2 Clown Loaches.
Also 6 SAEs in a 29 gal and 9 SAEs in a 75. In 3 years, living in
mixed community tanks, I have never seen any hostile action. The SAEs
mix in with the Clowns or the Clowns with the SAEs, not sure which
comes first.

I think you are unfair to speculate about the fish on just theories.
Clowns and SAEs are very special to me, thus I have so many and thus I
rush to defend the SAEs.


"False SAE" is most often Garra cambodgiensis, a very SAE-like cyprinid
with a small sucker disc on lower lip (but with no sucker mouth). They are
not schoolers when adult, so keeping four of them in one tank which isn't
bigger than that isn't good. They might get along now, but later you most
probably end up with problems. Try to find a new home for three of them.

False SAEs harass fishes, which are their relatives, like SAEs. Four false
SAEs and one true SAE, which is smaller than them or close to their size,
isn't a good idea. On the other hand something like 4 true SAEs and one
false, which is smaller than them, is ok as a group of SAEs can easily
avoid that annoying little "false" guy.

Liisa