# Bought a golden sucking loach today.



## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

Hey all, well my tank is nearly a month in, after doing a rather big fish in cycle i was worried that maybe id over a done it a bit and my fish would die due to nitrite spikes etcc, but a month on, im fine, water has established all fish are living and are fine!

I have, 

2 baby parrot cichlids
8 Odessa Barbs
4 baby clown loaches,

But today i noticed that i was getting a bit of algae on my plants etc, so i went to the lfs and told them i didnt want a plec, but something to eat the algae, so they recomended a Algae Loach, its a golden yellow colour, quite cute! its about an inch long so i gather its young also. Buit after coming home and doing some research ive noticed they can be rather aggresive etc and sometimes such on the side of other fish, Im just asking is this always the case, or is this just a few? Will mine be okay? should i give it about a week or so just watching him to see how it does etc.

Many thanks.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

hahahaha.....local fish stores are pretty creative on ways to get your money...a "golden sucking loach"..."algae loach"..........
i have no idea what species of fish you are talking about..maybe it's a chinese algae eater..i don't know..maybe i had better learn more about fishes.
if you did get a chinese algae eater,find your flush handle fast.they don't eat much algae and will get meaner than me.


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## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

Yeh its a chinese algae eater looking at photos.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Chinese Algae Eaters make lousy algae eaters after about year or two of their life. Plecos and snails are the best algae eaters when it comes to freshwater tanks.


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## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

This is it


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

Id return it, they can be rather aggressive and mine has killed a few. As they get older/bigger they will stop eating algae and just spend their time chasing other fish. Not only that but they can get rather large and you don't have room.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

NatBarry said:


> Id return it, they can be rather aggressive and mine has killed a few. As they get older/bigger they will stop eating algae and just spend their time chasing other fish. Not only that but they can get rather large and you don't have room.


That's what I said.


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

Ghost Knife said:


> That's what I said.


Haha ;-)


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## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

Nath, did yours kill big fish such as parrots? im just concerned mostly about the clowns. Ill monitor it tonight/tommorow and see how it looks.


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

No hasn't killed any parrots, its not that big but I guess they're aggressive any size. I bought 2 at the time and it killed the other as well as 5 black neons I had around 4 months back.


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## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

Oh so only small things then, the barbs will be okay, fast and hardy! im just worried about the clowns. 

Nath you selling any tanks? or know anybody that is around our area?


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

Barbs should be ok although may go for the parrots as yours are still quite small aren't they, they will go for anything they can get hold of, no matter what size. Id consider returning it.


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## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

Ye i am, like i said, just going to monitor it for a day or so. What other alternatives are there for good algae cleaning, that isnt a plec. i find them ugly haha.


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

You could try oto's, they stay small and you could probably squeeze them in. Although they have been known to be quite sensitive and not very hardy.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

SamHogan said:


> What other alternatives are there for good algae cleaning, that isnt a plec. i find them ugly haha.











or








or


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## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

What are Oto's?

And ive been watching for the past few hours, and to be honest, the CAE seems to be the runt of the tank at the moment, he swims away from every other fish, the parrots have asserted their dominance over him, and even the clowns which are smaller are swimming up to the CAE and making him swim away, so at the moment im quite pleased. I really love how busy he is, always cleaning haha.


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

Oto Cats, they are quite small and are brill algae cleaners. They have them at a lot of LFS round the West Midlands. Although, you could manage with an algae scraper.


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## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

So you would say oto cats are a more peacefull safer option then? Ive read up a little and apparently they prefer to have a tank mate of the same species, would 2 be enough?


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## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

They are SO tiny, you can afford to get about 5 with your tank space. We've had most of ours since August and they haven't gotten much bigger than what they were when we got them. They're all less than 2 inches long.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Otos will be a good option until your parrots eat them. The best way to fight algae is a balanced tank. 

BML thats a algae scrubber! Why use scrubbies when you can have blades!


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## SamHogan (Apr 3, 2010)

There that small my parrots would eat them when bigger? 

In my 20 gall, i have 2 parrots, 4 clowns, 8 odessas, so its fairly stocked already, so how many oto's should i get?


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

Hmm they are quite small and don't grow a lot, id say 3 would be good as you don't want to overstock the tank any more.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Mikaila31 said:


> Why use scrubbies when you can have blades!


Because if you get nicks in the blade it leaves little lines of algae (best not to snort these lines). 

Actually I use both, I was just trying to be funny. Thanks for ruining it lol


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