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Has anyone else ever had trouble with a Chinese Algae Eater? My Golden Chinese Algae Eater, who is full grown, has started chasing my gouramis. If you have had problems, is it serious, or does it just kind of chase the fish?

These fish are notorious for becoming aggressive with age.

They become very aggressive with age, and start to attach themselves to other fish in order to suck there slime coats. If you already see signs of this, I would return the fish.

ive seen CAE suck out eyeballs, flesh ect.. from other living fish, if its starting now, its time to take it back to the lfs.

Chinese algae eaters may seem like peaceful fish while they're young, but that won't last. They can get very aggressive and territorial as they age, and can be a menace.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Wow, I didn't realize they got that bad. Thanks, everyone!

Yes I had the exact same problem as you..

Apperently if your tank is overcrowded it contributes to the problem.. At least that's what I was told. Although by all the stocking rules I've heard of, it wasn't overstocked.. But the unwritten rule is some fish require more territory than others.. So yes I may have been crowded in that category. I don't know if you're having the same problems for the same reason.

Several other members reported similar problems..
My stepdad has a few very large CAE's with no problems, mind you it's a 120 gal tank.

I came so close to losing my gold gourami it wasn't funny.

The Amazon Nut...

Im trying to breed yellow labs, and developed a brown algae problem in my lab tank, so I put my oldest chinees algae eater in. He did well for a while and then started atacking my 3in. long labs! you must be an aggressive algae eater to atack a cichlid! He went back to the lfs, but I do recomend small ones for brown algae problems they love the stuff.

Last edited by mimo at 25-Sep-2004 02:07

I've had a CAE for almost two years now. He doesn't attack my other fish at all. In fact, he's kind of shy, only comming out of his cave to eat an algae pellet. He does still eat algae, as I haven't seen a spec of algae in the tank since I got him. When he was younger, he would try to chase the other fish, but he was so awkward when he swam that the other fish had no problem getting away from him. I read once on this board that feeding algae pellets by Hikari helps ease CAE agression because the main ingredient is fish meal. I have always fed this stuff to mine, and have had no problems.