kmoon

I am very new to aquariums. We researched for several months before setting up our aquarium and then finally purchasing fish. I have a 20 gallon tank with two mickey mouse fish, three guppies and one algae eater. They were suppossed to be all male. The pet store said they keep males and females separate. I did not want babies because I have no idea what to do with them. When I was cleaning the tank two days ago, I spotted a baby. Both of our Mickey mouse fish have/had large round bellies. I just assumed that's the way they looked. One now has a flat stomach. Any advice at all would be appreciated. Our tank has several plants for hiding.

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore kmoon!! congrats on the baby

you have done right by having the plants and the baby will grow and eat leftovers that drop into the plants...if you want to save him, you can get a breeder box to put him in so others dont snack on him...otherwise, seems he survived this long he might be a tough guy...the tank stocking looks great with the exception of the pleco..do you know what kind it is? posting some pics if you can, will help us identify your platies and your plec if you need more help

kmoon

I have no idea about the pelco. The lady at the petstore recommended him. I try to post a picture. Should it not be in a tank my size? We started out with two, and one dissapeared.

Shawnie

it depends on what it is...if its a common plec, they get to be up to 2 feet big..and plecs normally are big waste producers and can throw smaller tanks all in a mess....but if its an otto or something smaller (at adult size not as small babies that you might have now)you will be fine....trusting your pet stores is sometimes sketchy as alot of them are out to make money but hopefully yours isnt one of them!! but im wondering seeing how you were told all your platies were male yet you have a baby now

kmoon

My algae eater is a Golden algae eater. He is about two and half inches long right now. When we bought him in Feb or March, he was less than an inch long.

Shawnie

that could be a few things..it could be an albino bristle nose or chinese algae eater among others ....finding out what he is exactly, will help ...maybe you can google some algae eaters and find of pic of yours and post the link to help ?

kmoon

After looking at pictures, I am fairly certain it is a Chineese Algae eater. I have read that they can be aggresive to each other. I may now know why my other one disappeared.

Shawnie

they tend to be yes..and sometimes as they grow, they will crave the slimecoat off other fish..but you have some faster more round fish and provided he is fed a variety of a diet, he should be ok...im glad its a small guy tho for sure!