Advice: When to add Siamese Algae Eater

Subject: Advice: When to add Siamese Algae Eater
From: Dick
Date: 10/3/2004 4:51 AM Central Daylight Time
Message-id:

On 2 Oct 2004 05:17:47 -0700, (Mister Jerk)
wrote:

Dick wrote in message
...


I wish SAEs were fry eaters. I have too many fry that live into
adulthood and my 75 gallon tank has 6 SAEs. But, then, the bottom of
my tank has heavy plant growth. I would suggest more than one SAE as
they tend to swarm together, even resting on Anubia leaves like
fairies.


I only have a 38Gal tank though, would 2 or more SAEs be a good thing?
I currently have the following;

4 adult platies
3 platy fry
8 black neons

Planning to add
1 SAE
1 male Betta
3 tri-band barbs

What do you think?

I have 3 in a 29 gallon and one in a 10 gallon tank other than 10 in
the 75 gallon (I miss counted in my original message). They are good
citizens in my opinion. You list no fish that I would see as
conflicting. Be aware that platties reproduce in large quantities.
Your problem will be over crowding. The 3 fry will reach adulthood in
about 6 months, then your population explosion will be fast. You
didn't indicate the sex of the 4 adults, females are the problem. You
can have all the males you want, but one male with 6 females is
disaster. Unless, you plan to sell them or continue to add tanks.

Sorry to be so negative about live bearers. I have been addressing
this birth control problem for a couple of months and I have 6 tanks.
My problem really got terrible when ONE female black molly gave birth
to over 50 fry in my quarantine tank. Very few died. I tried hard to
find homes. One friend wanted some, but had a large chiclid, so I
raised the fry until I had a few large enough, I thought, to live in
her community tank. Wrong, the chiclid had no problem consuming the
fry. I now have the platties and mollies separated by sex (I hope).
I have lost some of the mollies over the last year and have even
resorted to killing new fry when I can catch them.

So, I may be overly negative. If you can get a LFS (I have none) or a
local fish club to take the fry after they are big enough, then you
may enjoy raising them.

dick

Hi Dick.
An over population of live bearer fry is *not* (giggle) going to be a problem
with a Betta in the tank.