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Siamese Algae Eater: care guide

• Dec 24, 2020
• Anshika Mishra
•   2219        0      0

Let's get this first, Siamese algae eater are not the best algae eater because they only eat a certain type of algae and if you are just having these fish for algae eating, you will still have to do the cleanup of the tank, as you did without them. But it is also true that these fishes are really good algae eater if kept in a school.

Water Parameters

Siamese algae eaters are very hardy fish but they do get bigger, they get about 6-inches. So, if you put them in a smaller tank you might limit their growth. They work great with a whole bunch of ranges for water parameters.

Tank Size

The most appropriate tank size for these fishes would be 3-gallon or bigger, in a group of 4-6 because they are schooling fish.

Differentiating Siamese from Flying Fox

This is how you can differentiate them from flying fox, you don't have to know how to tell them apart from Chinese algae eater because they are very different.

• Flying Foxes do not like to school, so if you have got a Siamese algae eater which is a Flying Fox then you will notice that it would not get along with other Siamese in the tank. And if none of them gets along then you have got a school of Flying Foxes. They would not be doing much for your algae problem.
• In the Siamese algae eater, a black lateral line goes through their entire body, and in flying foxes, there is a black and gold line that is on its body.
• Flying Fox's tinges are red especially in the caudal tale which is just the end tail fin of the fish.
• Another significantly identifying help tool is that Flying Foxes and Siamese Algae Eater, both have barbells on there, like little whiskers coming out. But the Siamese Algae Eater and only this fish, not the Flying fox have one pair, whereas the Flying Fox has two pairs, so four barbles.
• Siamese Algae eater is also a very good community fish, they shouldn't be attacking any other fish, but once they get big they can be a little annoying to other fishes.

If you want a good and peaceful community fish, especially if you have Corydoras in the bottom, some of them have really nasty personalities and they will stab your Corydoras to death.

So, if Siamese fighting fish is what you want to be going for, then definitely get it, it is a great addition to a community tank.