aquarium fish

Stop Scrubbing Your Algae - Let The Chinese Algae Eater Do It For You!

The Chinese Algae Eater (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri) might not be the prettiest fish in the tank, but he certainly is the hardest working and if you have an algae problem, you should consider adding one to your aquarium.

This little guy is a plain looking fish with a dark stripe down it’s middle and nondescript coloring. A loach, his mouth is located underneath which helps him grip onto rocks and such in the current. Although plain in looks, this fish is quite amazing at the speed in which he will clean your tank of algae - just add one Chinese Algae eater to your tank and you will see a reduction in algae literally overnight.

A young Chinese algae eater is rather small, perhaps ½ inch and can eat an amazing amount of algae. He’ll clean the sides of your tank, your decorations and even the substrate. When he is small, he will do fine in the tank with other fish, but older Chinese algae eaters can get to be territorial and might start to cause a problem if there is more than one in the tank.

This tropical fish will do well in most tank environments and like a temperature between 77 and 82 degrees F. Although they are rather hardy and tolerable to most conditions, it should be noted that at temperatures below 69 degrees F they will stop eating the algae so be sure to keep the tank warm if you want to avail yourself of their cleaning services!

Since the Chinese algae eater exists likes an herbivorous diet and love algae, you’ll want to be sure that there is light around your tank so that algae does grow. If you want to spice things up for him, you can try putting in some lettuce or spinach and he may even eat some flake food.

The algae eater will most likely hang around on the bottom of the aquarium and hide in your decorations or plants. You will frequently see him hanging onto the sides of the glass and just about anything in the tank that he can suck algae off of. You might want to keep an eye on him because even though the young ones are rather small, they can grow to be 11 inches long in the right environment! If you are thinking you might have to get a bigger tank just for your Chinese algae eater, don’t worry, 11 inches is probably pretty rare, but a 5 inch fish is not unheard of.

The Chinese algae eater is readily available in most any aquarium supply store. If the clerk gives you a funny look when you ask for one, try asking for a Sucking Loach or Indian Algae Eater as they can also go by these names.

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