Sick golden algae eater, help needed please.

[Daley]

Hi all,

I have two golden algae eaters in my tank. A few days ago I noticed that one of them had taken to hiding right behind the filter. When I finally got it to come out I realised it was in a bad way. It's horribly thin and looks very weak.

I've looked on the internet but I can't find any help about treatment, solutions etc.
Can anyone help as I feel desperate and would appreciate any feedback.

I read that golden algae eaters can be aggressive with other fish as they get older so was wondering if one is bullying the other? They are both quite young though.

 

[chefrossco]

they can bully each other and also strip the scales off other fish, if it is thin it could be a matter of feeding - what do you feed then??, or internal parasites or water quality, if you could post a pic it might help

 

[epond83]

I'm guessing you are talking about a Golden Chinese Algea eater. Mine loves to eat brown algea won't touch other types. If there isn't any algea in your tank you can add aglea tabs or cucuber, or zucinnie. Mine never even noticed there were other fish in the tank untill he got big and didn't have brown algea to eat, then he started chasing the fish. Now he is in the turrtle tank on 24/7 defense, but is ating all the borwn algea in there now.

As far as one chaseing the other i would say unlikly since they are small but a little time in front of the tank watching to see what is going on is a good idea, also fun.

 

[ts808]

I just returned two Chinese algae eaters because they were killing my other fish. Even when they were young (when I first got them), I did observe them chasing each other around the tank, and the larger one would chase the smaller one usually. The smaller one would hide in plants or in corners away from the large one.

In terms of why it is thin, I can't answer that....not enough experience with fish. I did feed them algae tabs though once they cleaned up the tank. I took a suggestion from someone on here and got some otos and started feeding then zucchini (started today), and am curious to see if they will go for it.