Arofanatics Fish Talk Forums - Confirmation of type of algae which Reticulated Flying Fox (Silver Algae Eater)

I had a serious algae issue with these type of algae in my tank:
1) Green Spot (easy)
2) Normal green shit on glass walls and everything (easy)
3) Staghorn algae
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/im...r_algae_12.jpg
4) Green staghorn algae
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/im...r_algae_13.jpg

The Green spot and normal green stuff is fine, under control, if I want to eliminate it just increase the number of Otocinclus in my tank.

But the Staghorn, they won't touch it. My algae eating shrimp wouldn't touch it.

I was thinking of Siamese Algae Eater, but at Seaview they didn't have stock. But there was another fish there, the Silver Algae Eater, which formal name is the Reticulated Flying Fox or Crossocheilus reticulatus. You can see more information here: http://www.franksaquarium.com/garra.htm

http://www.franksaquarium.com/images...eticulatus.jpg

I bought 2 of them. Man they were so FAST that I couldn't catch them in Seaview, I had to ask the lady to catch it for me and she took a long time too, and believe me there were about 40 of them in that 120 litre tank. She asked me to buy 4 but since these were not documented as having the same staghorn/hair algae eating prowess as the Siamese Algae Eater, I decided to buy 2 first. Price was S$1.80 each.

The moment I put them in they disappeared. WTF man. I even asked my wife - hey was I dreaming? I could have sworn I put them in the tank but they're not there. My wife confirmed that I wasn't crazy. I searched the floor etc. but they were not there too.

I waited 2 days. One day I went back home and I FOUND THEM!!!!! I saw them swimming around chasing each other. When I approached they disappeared again.

The next day they hung around longer. And the next day longer. After 3 days, my staghorn DISAPPEARED. My god, it was crazy. I am now so worried that they have not enough to eat, buying algae tablets liao.

So I confirm that, at least this batch of Reticulated Flying Fox, they eat hair algae and everything else. If what i read about SAE is true, this RFF matches the prowess of the SAE.

They are well behaved (short of tearing around the tank chasing each other) and really don't care about other fish. The other fish are not stressed by them. The only problem is that they will grow to 7" big and I want to transfer them to my pond, where there is a REAL TON of algae, but I cannot catch them short of destroying all that is in my tank.

I really don't mind them now, about 2.5", because they disappear when people are watching the tank. They are nice but they stress humans out coz they run around so much. They don't touch my oto, tetra, shrimp, freshwater dwarf puffer, and the other creatures don't touch them too.

So if you can't find true SAE, this guy does the same job. Better - there is no confusion here - this guy no stripe. So you can't get a false SAE.