Loach-like but maybe not

[KhuliKhilla]

with the new tank i bought i got a load of fish frew with it. most i have no intention of keeping and my lfs is happily taking them off my hands. this little beaut on the other hand i fancy keeping... its about 4-5 inches long and rather solid looking. it has a sucker located just underneath what appears to be a snout on the end of its rostrum.

the sucker and its behaviour of sucking and grazing the pebbles, also its shape appear loach like but i have looked through the species index and it isnt there... there is also something about it that doesnt look loach like.

im stuck.... help is appreciated, especially if it turns out to be something im not set up to look after and keep.










lee

[Martin Thoene]

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile47.html

Chinese Algae Eater, Gyrinocheilus aymonieri.....Often called the "Sucking Loach", but not actually a loach.

Martin.

[Graeme Robson]

You beat me, Martin!

Yeah it's a Gyrinocheilus aymonieri.

[KhuliKhilla]

ah... perfect. thank you very much indeed. i have seen those before but i suppose the size of this one threw me as the other have been rather tiddly little things. this one is a brute.

many thanks

[newshound]

IMO-- get rid of it...
and get a SAE instead if you want a algae eater.
http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/
so many shops and dealers call this guy a loach
in my part of Canada a dealer sells a "albino algae eating loach"

[sophie]

I'm pretty sure I'm safe in saying that if it hasn;t got barbels, it ain't a loach?

I've got one five or so inches which is an awful lot solider than yours. I like it, but I'm aware I'm in a minority

[worldrallynut]

I had one in with my angels for a while, and he developed a nasty habit of attacking his tankmates. Keep an eye out for the algae eater sucking on the other fish in the tank.

[Kitishane]

Be VERY careful with Chinese Algae Eaters.

I was one of the novices way back when that decided that having one would be awesome. My first one died suddenly, but gave my old beta no problems.

I picked up a new one in the hopes for peaceful co-existance, which worked for the first month or so, until the CAE started growing. He began to be VERY agressive with his tank mate, to the point where I brought him home to my semi agressive tank, to see if it would calm him down a bit. He began attacking the fish in that tank, and we think he was responsible for the deaths of at least two of our fish, while we were away on our honeymoon.

We took him to our LFS who had no problem taking him off our hands, and were astounded that we didn't want store credit! We just wanted the mean bugger off our hands!

The bigest problem with CAE is that most fish stores will sell them as awesome algae eaters, which is not true. As juvenilles, they do eat algae, and well, but as they get older, they tend to loose all interest in algae, and as I've noted above, tend to become VERY agressive. A lot of fish stores will also sell CAE under the false name of Siamese Algae Eaters, in the attempt to fool novice aquarists. I fell for it way back then, and now that I know what to look for, I can't believe how different the two species are.

Just keep an eye on it, and on the condition of your other fish.

[YellowFinned]

There seem to be lots of CAE in the market lately, maybe it is CAE season. They look alright till you see a fair sized SAE. I agree with newshound, SAE is a great algae eater.