I boughts 5 small (currently in a grow out tank) Siamese Algae Eaters yesterday. I was wondering if I can put them in with my African Cichlids once the Siamese Algae Eaters are bigger. My current African Cichlids are as follows:

1 male colbalt zebra
5 saulosi (1m, 4f)
3 zebra obliquedens (2m,1f)

The tank is a 55 gal.

yodahorn, I don't have any experience with the Siamese algae eaters, only the Chinese algae eaters.

I do know that the Chinese ones aren't a good long term solution, because they frequently attach to the fish in an effort to "suck" the slime coat off of them. I recently saw a pic of a fish that had massive holes in him from a Chinese algae eater.

These two fish are very similar, so I would beware. They might be fine when they are smaller, but once they mature, I would keep a very close eye on things.

Kim

the siamese are supposed to be better algae eaters and more laid back than chinese. I know the chinese are tough, as I had a golden chinese algae eater that was one of the toughest fish I had in a previous tank.

I really liked my chinese algae eater - he died a little while back and I was sad to lose him. He kept the tank spotless and didn't have an aggressive streak. He was already in the tank before I added the cichlids and was not harassed in any way, but when I tried to add others to tanks that were already established with cichlids, they were all killed almost immediately. Including larger ones that I tried.

I tried slipping them in at night, adding more than one at a time, it just didn't matter. They just tore them to pieces, usually right as they hit the water. Very heartbreaking, so I switched to bristlenose plecos and have had better luck.

I guess it would depend on the size of your fish and how aggressive they are. Mine were on the larger size and very aggressive.

Chinese Algae Eaters are evil. They speak with Transylvanian accents, subscribe to NetFlicks only for the Vampire movies, and they have Bela Lugosi tattoos on their flanks.

I dunno about the Siamese ones, but after several incidents in the 1970's and 80's I decided to recognize the true evil nature of the Chinese ones. I'll never expose a fish of mine to them again.

:: Cue old movie style dramatic organ music ::

All you can do is try, yodahorn.

I know of others on CF that keep the Siamese algae eaters, but these were all new tanks and I never heard any long term history on them.

Let us know what you decide and how it works out. I would start out with the smallest one that I could, but you may run into the same problems Aura did with trying to introduce one to an established tank.

Kim

well at the financial impact will be small.