# Ok, my fish don't care about mathematics



## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

Not my cichlids, but my Chinese Algae Eaters. I think they had babies, but they're still pretty small, i started out buying 4 small ones, then 2 of those got eaten (bye bye convict, well into another tank). So then i went out found some slightly bigger (3-4 inches) ones, and bought 2 of them, so that makes me having 4. K, so then about a week later my other (smaller) Convict decided to eat another small one, which would leave me with 3. The convict was being aggresive so I went to pull him out as well, and had to remove everything but sand and water from the tank, so there was no where to hide. The Chinese Algae eaters all gathered with each other on the glass in the far back corner which made it very easy to count, and there were 7! What the heck? I have the 2 big ones and 5 (1-1.5 inch) small ones. This all took place in about 2 weeks and i really have no idea what happened, any ideas?


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## xalow (May 10, 2007)

I don't know how CAEs breed but I think its likely that they are egg scatterers which could not have reproduced in a two week period. Is it possible that the convicts didn't actually kill any of the fish and that you may of bought one more than you thought? Or maybe had one from before that was in hiding up until now?


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

nope, convict cant eat off all of them, just kill them lol, so i had 3 bodies, all identifiable and all a lot smaller than any of my other fish


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

K, so i've read around online, and apparently its the same story on every site, literally lol, the guy didn't know why they spawned either lol

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/bre ... Eater.html


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

what was the timeline? It takes time for any fish to grow to 1 inch... I mean, if this is within a couple of months then no... they weren't hatched in your tank! If this was over the course of a year, then this is not unheard of...


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

it was literally weeks, like 3 at the most, i believe it's closer to 2


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

There is no way for fish to hatch and grow to one inch in 3 weeks... sorry...


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

i know, so what the heck happened?


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

I'd look into the following, and in likely this order...

roommates/siblings/parents, etc. anyone else who might have thought they were doing you a favor

recently added rocks, castles, ornaments

recently added plants, mosses, etc.

9 times out of ten, a well meaning person with access to your tank is a common culprit for multiple new tank additions! :thumb:


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

lol nope, my dad couldn't figure out how to lift the lid let alone know what algae, or a fish that eats it would be lol. My fiancee was with me the whole time and is more puzzled than i am. no one else has been near the tank and the only new things in the tank are rocks from hikes and walks, one new peice of driftwood, but it's all been boiled...many times (driftwood). I'm lost with this lol, maybe chinese algae eater babies get deliver by a much much smaller stork than human babies? lol


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## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

Somehow it doesn't sound so wild to me. I had a Chinese algae eater that grew like wildfire. They are voracious eaters. I had it in three tanks in three weeks and each was totally cleaned. In less than a month it was double in size so I got rid of it since I understand the larger ones are a danger to other fish since they will suck on them too.

You might of gotten some eggs or tiny fry in the bag when you bought the fish.


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

i did look closely ( at the fish) and didn't notice any eggs or fry, but again i was looking at the fish, so thats possible i guess. Those must be some tough eggs and\or fry to make it through the movement and getting back to that hiding place. I'm gonna go look and see if CAE's are mouth brooders like cichlids are

edit: nope, no information is known lol


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