Stolen from another website (disconcerting to me because I have 3 gold algae eaters in my livebearers 55g tank and my kitty LOVES "suckyface" and he and the fish taunt each other - really cute. One is about 1.5 inches and the other two are about 3 inches.):
Chinese Algae Eater
Sold as many names including- cold water algae eater, CAE, SAE
Gyrinocheilus aymonieri
Unlike the other pictures of fish above ( excluding the Otocinclus) , these fish have a sucker mouth and are the most recommended to stay away from. There is also a gold color morph of this fish , pictures below, that is commonly sold as "gold algae eater". They are known to quit eating alage at about 4 inches long ( 10 cm) and start to feed off the slime coat of flat bodied fish. It will eventually get 9 inches or 27 cm long. The gold version is only supposed to attain 22cm long.
This fish is distinctively different from the other fish and is notorious for loosing taste for algae as it ages and then starts eating slime coat off your other fish resulting in sores and wounds.
WAHHH! I'm not looking forward to them behaving badly. I just lost my two beautiful SAE's this morning to some kind of chemical disaster in the tank, the other fish seem to be recovering after removing 5 gallons off the bottom of the tank where SAE's lived. They were about 3-3.5 inches long and I'd had them for a year and a half. Sad day here :(
