SAE eating Crypts

[zayackylepga]

At first I thought my crypts were losing leaves because of a nutrient deficiency. Every once and a while it would be one leaf at a time. But it would always be in a pattern that it looked like something was taking bites of it. Now I think I caught my SAE in the act. Has anyone else experienced these fish eating leaves and vegetation. Feed once a day but maybe that’s not enough for him particularly? 

[lefty o]

my sae's liked to lay on crypt leaves, but i never had them eat any. doesnt hurt to try and target a little extra food. mine would eat pretty much anything, but really went after the shrimp pellets made for cory's.

[anewbie]

Can you post a picture of your fish; there are several species of fish that look similar to sae but are not that will eat plants. My sae never touched my crypt; though he had plenty of other foods to eat... not sure what he would do in a new tank with no food.

[lefty o]

On 8/20/2021 at 10:01 AM, anewbie said:

Can you post a picture of your fish; there are several species of fish that look similar to sae but are not that will eat plants. My sae never touched my crypt; though he had plenty of other foods to eat... not sure what he would do in a new tank with no food.

he has two pictures in that post with an sae staring at you. 

[JoshStover]

Weird. I have 4 SAE in a tank with only crypts and never had an issue. Hoping I didn’t just jinx myself. 

[anewbie]

On 8/20/2021 at 10:10 AM, lefty o said:

he has two pictures in that post with an sae staring at you. 

Come on give me a break; you can't identify the species from just the nose.

[zayackylepga]

[zayackylepga]

Feed him a mix of flake, algae tablets, and sinking pellets

[Deku-Corydoras]

Friendly neighborhood SAE enthusiast here! So the thing about Siamese Algae Eaters is that there are multiple nearly identical species within the genus that are sold under the name. Some of them are better at eating Algae than others, and some species are known to eat plants. There's a lot of unknowns and conflicting information when it comes to the different species, but there are some things known.

That being said, the only species I've seen that has been described as eating plants is Crossocheilus Atrilimes, but yours is definitely not that species since it is noted to lack maxilary barbels (The little whiskers you can see very clearly in the first photo.) and they have a much thinner black stripe than yours. It could be entirely possible that other species do eat plants, but it just hasn't been documented. I believe yours is Crossocheilus Langei, the most common species of SAE, which isnt known for plant munching, at least with live plants.

On a less scientific note, SAE's, regardless of species, are what I lovingly call fish-shaped garbage disposals. They'll eat just about anything if the mood strikes them. It would not surprise me in the least if one developed a taste for plants. It could be that the crypt leaf was just starting to die and he decided to speed up the process. Or maybe he just decided crypts are yummy. Mine will snack on dying or dead leaves if it happens to catch their interest, but they usually loose interest pretty quickly and return to eating algae. 

My suggestion would be to offer some boiled vegetables, or maybe even stick a piece of lettuce in. Changes up their source of nutrition, and gives them something that will take a while to eat, which might fill him up and distract him from eating leaves.