Algae Eater?

Question

I got this algae eater a few months ago and was told it was a common algae eater. Anyway it doesn't look like one it have spots all over the body which is black & a gold/orange color. What kind can this be?

His color is alot brighter than the picture shows. He also have this orange/gold color all through his tail fin.

http://images30.fotki.com/v472/photos/9/915913/4525215/DSCF9019-vi.jpg

Answer 1

What you have is some type of Pleco. Most likely a Sail-fin Pleco. It will do an excellent job of cleaning the algae in your tank but once the algae is gone it will need another source of food. I suggest getting algae wafers for some extra food.

Answer 2

The photo is a plecostomus, very good on algae, botton food, etc. Get a couple of SMALL Chinese algae eaters, and they will keep all algae in check. When they get big, they get lazy and quit eating algae.

Answer 3

Well that is kinda how a common pleco looks except where did the orange come in? Gold yes, orange no.

Answer 4

Lots of fish can go by "algae eater" or sucker fish".

Some of the ones this could be are any of the "Plecostomous" types, a Chinese (get rid of it if it's this, they're aggressive!) and Siamese algae eaters (doesn't fit your description), loaches, and otocinclus catfish (also doesn't fit your description).

This link includes most I've listed, so you should be able to find what you have: http://www.fishprofiles.com/profiles/list.aspx?category=1

Also try these links:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=837
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=1162
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=885

Answer 5

I like loaches- you can identify them b/c they look a little like tiny catfish, with whiskers and all. Is that the kind you have?
Maybe you have the chinese algae eater?
There's a link below to identify yours from here

Answer 6

Maybe your algae eater is a loach. Yeah its common.

Answer 7

it's unique, that's all.

duh.