Chinese Algae Eaters

Finned Vacuum Cleaners

Gyrinocheilos aymonieri

This incredibly interesting fish is probably inappropriately named since they are indigenous to India. It is a bottom feeder, but not a catfish. It stays very active in the tank and only seems to hide when resting. We introduced it into a tank with 18 month old Red Oscars when the Algae Eater was not more than two inches in length. The Oscars pursued it as a potential meal for several days. The Algae Eater was resourceful enough avoid capture by creating a burrow in the gravel underneath a lava rock in an angle of the 30 gallon hexagonal tank. We don't add food to the tank specifically for the Algae Eater. It thrives solely upon the debris that the Oscars allow to fall to the bottom of the tank and on algae growing on the gravel and glass. In the five months or so we've had it, its size has increased to nearly five inches in length, and as big around as a man's thumb.

It lives in perfect harmony now with the Oscars. The only time the Oscars chase the Algae Eater now is for sport. We liked this Algae Eater so well that we purchased one to introduce into our 10 gallon community tank. Again it thrives on what it finds available at the bottom of the tank and has no other special needs. There was a fairly luxuriant algae growth on the gravel and decorations in the tank prior to its arrival, and in two short months the algae has nearly all disappeared. It is a very gentle and peaceful tank inhabitant, but by no means a docile one. It stays constantly busy around the bottom and working its way up the glass sides.

Armed with this admiration and confidence for the little scavenger species, we introduced a small one into our twenty gallon tank with a pair of juvenile Oscars. It may have been pure dumb luck that our first Algae Eater specimen was so successful in avoiding capture, or it was a superior dodger and weaver. The juvenile Oscars have now eaten two of the new Algae Eaters within 24 hours of having been placed into the tank. We have decided we had better grow one for awhile in a calmer tank before trying to introduce one into the 20 gallon tank again.

I am reading a number of sources at present, and I will add more information to this page as I improve my grasp of the subject. Check back from time to time if this interests you. I have just started these pages.

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Gary Churchman
garydebc@silcom.com

Copyright © 1997 Gary Churchman
This page was created Friday, March 14, 1997
Most recent revision Wednesday, July 2, 1997

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