# Betta fish and algae eaters



## wandabotha (Dec 16, 2015)

Hi guys, I am new on this forum and I apologise in advance if this has been asked before. Can I keep an algae eater with my betta? I got one when I bought my new betta, but now I did some research and apparantly the siamese algae eater makes a good tank mate, but the chinese algae eater does not. I can't tell them apart, and the guy at the petshop only told me that it is a 'normal algae eater'...whatever that means. I took a photo, he is still small, so it's the best I can do unfortunately. Any ideas on whether this is a SAE or a CAE? Thanks!










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## miatiny (Aug 11, 2016)

It is a chinese algae eater. They can grow quite big. I have never kept them with bettas before but I had one a while back with some angel fish and after living peacefully with them for over a year it latched on and left a circle mark wound on one of my angel fish. I rehomed him after that.


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## wandabotha (Dec 16, 2015)

Thank you! Will keep a close eye on the little sucker. They do a mighty good job of keeping the tank clean though.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

What size is the tank?


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## wandabotha (Dec 16, 2015)

It is a 10 lt Marina 360 with lights and filter. 


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## KeshiaB (Aug 27, 2013)

Unfortunately 10 litres (2.6 gallons) isn't big enough for any algae eaters. 

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## NyanRose (Oct 19, 2016)

a chinese algae eater is a big nono. It will become very large and aggressive, and will probably even eat your betta on top of not being all that good at eating algae. When they get bigger they seem to almost stop eating it all together. It also will grow really fast and you won't be able to keep it. Best to return it. In my opinion the best algae eaters are the otocinclus catfish. They look similar to baby CAE at first but they have a nice prominent spot on their tail fin. This is a picture of mine, the top half above the stripe is normally a very dark brown, this was after a water change and they always get finicky and pale right after. 










they stay small, only getting a few inches at most. But like to school. It sounds like your tank will be too small. Maybe you can try a nerite or mystery snail. Though mystery snails poop a lot


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## Kaykay (Oct 12, 2016)

That seems to be neither but actually an Otocinclus, and if it is it will stay that size but is better to keep in large groups


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