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I just got back from the LFS and they had a tank of something that they called "algae eaters" with no species name or anything. I asked a few workers and nobody could tell me exactly what they were. I didn't buy any, but I'm still curious as to what they are.

I looked at the profiles here for SAEs, CAEs, and flying foxes, and the fish at the store had the same general body shape, but I'm not sure how to distinguish between them other than that. They were only about 2 inches long and were white, which is what's confusing me. I've never kept any sort of algae eater, so I don't have any firsthand experience...

Any ideas?

Is it an albino CAE?. It has a golden white body & looks exactly like a CAE.


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Definitely sounds like the Golden Algae Eater, which is merely a semi-albino form of the Chinese Algae Eater. They get to be nearly a foot long, and once they hit about 3" in size they tend to become very aggressive and parasitic (sucking the slime off other fish, leaving their skin open to infections).

Plus, they usually aren't very good algae eaters at any stage of their life.

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Yes, that looks right Thanks!

yes, chances are that the lfs wont get an SAE, but CAE. like every1 said, CAE will get large, and aggressive.