SAE in a 20 gallon tank

[TMartins]

Hello Everyone,

i have a 20 gallon high tank and i am having issues with BBA.  I’ve read about how SAE’s will eat BBA and wanted to know what is the smallest sized tank that fish keepers in this community have SAE’s in??  I’ve actually read online that they can be kept in a 20 gallon??  I know that they can get up to 6 inches long but how long will that take??  Thank you. 

[Lennie]

In my opinion you need at least three of them to spend their energy and satisfying their chasing behavior within the group. They are like kids playing tag, having one would make it bored or maybe even lead to potential aggression?
two would lead one chasing another all the time. Trio must be the minimum for distraction and spreading the chasing behavior. IMO, 20 is too small for them, I wouldn’t keep a trio under 40g

Edited February 2 by Lennie

[lefty o]

im just going to say nope, not a good idea.

[Tony s]

Too big for a 20. they can get 6 inches long

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I will say I'm currently keeping one in a 20 gallon tank. He/she will eventually go into a 100+ gallon tank but is currently only 1.5 inches and is doing fine. 

I also see on my local fish club forum people frequently giving the bigger ones away once they've outgrown the tank. You have to have a plan for the fish and give it up to a better home. 

I also think 1 is fine. I've read too many things where they get aggressive with each other as they grow. 

Edited February 2 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[TMartins]

I know better but it’s one of those things where I’m dealing with BBA and I’m trying to find an easy way out.  Thank you all for your input.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@TMartins where is your bba? only on plants or?

[Tony s]

On 2/2/2024 at 4:31 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

I will say I'm currently keeping one in a 20 gallon tank. He/she will eventually go into a 100+ gallon tank but is currently only 1.5 inches and is doing fine. 

I also see on my local fish club forum people frequently giving the bigger ones away once they've outgrown the tank. You have to have a plan for the fish and give it up to a better home. 

I also think 1 is fine. I've read too many things where they get aggressive with each other as they grow. 

right they get feisty

if it was a cool water tank you could do florida flag fish. or just try and trim/scrape where it's at

[Tony s]

could throw a couple of nerite snails in there

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Tony s I love me a Nerite but they're not really BBA eaters. I have bba in a tank where I have 4 Nerites. 

[Lennie]

On 2/3/2024 at 12:39 AM, Tony s said:

right they get feisty

if it was a cool water tank you could do florida flag fish. or just try and trim/scrape where it's at

 

On 2/3/2024 at 12:31 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

I will say I'm currently keeping one in a 20 gallon tank. He/she will eventually go into a 100+ gallon tank but is currently only 1.5 inches and is doing fine. 

I also see on my local fish club forum people frequently giving the bigger ones away once they've outgrown the tank. You have to have a plan for the fish and give it up to a better home. 

I also think 1 is fine. I've read too many things where they get aggressive with each other as they grow. 

To be fair, they always are feisty. It is not really an aggression but more like an interaction IMO. The more space swimming area lots of decorations and group members they have, the better they can satisfy their natural behavior.

I think we can think them like more boisterous barbs maybe? Fast, active, likes a group but they can be boisterous and chasy between each other in a group. 
 

I have to disagree keeping them alone part. Also I heard about them being aggressive towards other fish if kept alone.

That being said, I barely take SAE experiences into consideration, because so many species are sold under the wrong label of SAE like CAE, Flying fox, False sae, etc. so the comments based on wrong species are all over the place

[Tony s]

Wasn't sure, never had to fight with bba before. mollies also eat algea

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Tony s it's definitely a pain- I WISH a snail was the solution, any snail. BBA is really a hard one. The only solutions I've ever seen were SAE, Florida Flagfish, and the fancy process that broke here, Reverse Respiration. Blacking out a tank supposedly works but not my jam. 

[wuht]

I've had the opposite experience with keeping them in a small group. I had 3 in my 75 gallon a while back and when they got to adulthood the two largest ones would fight constantly.

It unfortunately ended with them scaring each other in the middle of the night, trying to jump out of the water only to hit the glass lid and when I checked on them in the morning they both had passed. The remaining one I have is a great resident though, he hangs out with the corys during feeding and I've never seen any aggression.

[anewbie]

panda gara will eat bba. Mine did an excellent job of cleaning my anubia. 

[Tanked]

I am keeping 5 SAEs in a 29.   Two of them are approaching their 4th birthday, and are still about 2.5 ".  They usually work independently, but will group together when resting or frightened.  Because they are a social fish, I personally think that you should keep at least three, but never just one.  Mine are active, but I've never seen any aggression.  The SAEs might get to 6 inches and might live up to 10 years or beyond, but that doesn't mean that they will.   

They spend most of their time in the bottom half of the tank, among the plants and decorations, and their swimming habit is basically swim a little, eat a little.  My opinion would be that our tanks differ by six inches,  but you are good with adding two or three fish.

[anewbie]

On 2/3/2024 at 9:29 AM, Tanked said:

I am keeping 5 SAEs in a 29.   Two of them are approaching their 4th birthday, and are still about 2.5 ".  They usually work independently, but will group together when resting or frightened.  Because they are a social fish, I personally think that you should keep at least three, but never just one.  Mine are active, but I've never seen any aggression.  The SAEs might get to 6 inches and might live up to 10 years or beyond, but that doesn't mean that they will.   

They spend most of their time in the bottom half of the tank, among the plants and decorations, and their swimming habit is basically swim a little, eat a little.  My opinion would be that our tanks differ by six inches,  but you are good with adding two or three fish.

The only way they are 2.5 inches after 4 years is that they are runts or not actually sae but one of the similar looking fishes like flying foxes. My SAE  - which i started in a 29 quickly out-grew it in under a year and then i moved it to a 120 and quite frankly i found the 120 small for it. These are very very fast fish.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@anewbie wow! Too small?! I'm glad my new tank is long!

[lefty o]

On 2/3/2024 at 5:47 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@anewbie wow! Too small?! I'm glad my new tank is long!

its subjective. i used to have 5 SAE's in my 120, and they were just fine, but i had lots of plants they liked to lay in. only issues i ever had with them was come feeding time they would just push their way into the food. they werent aggressive, but they were getting in there and eating!

[nabokovfan87]

I've had a group of 5-6 SAEs and due to aggression from one tank's inhabitants I had to thin their numbers.  One went into a 20L, the other into a 29G.  These fish can get CHUNKY, but when they get that size they also get very lazy.  Long term, my recommendation would be to have at least a 3 foot long tank for them at full size.  They do grow pretty quickly as well.  There are some stores, not big box store, which will let you buy one and then sell it back to them eventually.  SAEs are usually in pretty high demand and they go into large plant tank systems.  Talk with your LFS and have a plan.  When they are young, under 5" or so, they are fine.  The males are going to stay smaller than the females, but they are much more active.  The females will lay and bask a lot when they get full size and filled with food.  They get big bellies and just turn into what looks like orcas laying all over the tank. 

That would be my approach.  It's perfectly fine to use an SAE in a tank 20G or larger, but long term have a plan when they grow.  Just having one is fine. 

If you want to avoid all the hastle, look for some clithon carona snails (also renamed to clithon diadema, common name is horned nerite) and just go that route.  In a 20L you could easily have 5+ and be fine.  They will take care of BBA.

Edited February 4 by nabokovfan87

[TMartins]

@anewbie panda gara will eat bba. Mine did an excellent job of cleaning my anubia. 
 

Has anyone else had experience with having a panda gara eating BBA??
 
 

[lefty o]

ive never noticed my panda garras going after bba.

[anewbie]

On 2/3/2024 at 6:24 PM, lefty o said:

its subjective. i used to have 5 SAE's in my 120, and they were just fine, but i had lots of plants they liked to lay in. only issues i ever had with them was come feeding time they would just push their way into the food. they werent aggressive, but they were getting in there and eating!

There are two standard dimensions for a 120; mine is the 4x2x2 - so only 48 inches long. Yea 5 could fit in there but a longer tank would work better.

[Lennie]

On 2/4/2024 at 6:58 PM, TMartins said:

@anewbie panda gara will eat bba. Mine did an excellent job of cleaning my anubia. 
 

Has anyone else had experience with having a panda gara eating BBA??
 
 

@beastie has panda garras but what I remember, she told me they dont really make any difference when it comes to algae eating in general. No clue about specific bba situation

she may help further

[beastie]

Do you see the algae on the stones, the sand and the glass? I have seven panda garras and two sewellias.  Draw your own conclusions. The tank never had bba though, and I think you would have to starve the fish a lot for them to go for it. Rule of thumb is, algae has low nutritional value and is hard to eat, so if there is ANY other food, the fish will not go for the hard work low yield algae.

 

I think buying a fish to fix a perceived problem is a bad idea. BBA has well defined parameters in which grows. Some people even find it pretty. Is easy to remove with bleach. Why get a fish that wont fit your community and will live for years to fix something you can either learn to live with or get rid of yourself?