I purchased an algae eater awhile back for my 20 gallon tank and recently relocated to a new apartment with the tank in toe. I have noticed that the algae eater's head has begun to turn yellowish orange. He does not act ill and seems to be doing quite well along with all the other fish. So I am just hoping that this is apart of the growing process. I attempted to post a picture but with no luck. I will post one if I can get some instructions.

Thanks.

Does it look like this one?




There are more similar photos at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/sae.htm#links

Chinese algae eaters are normally brown/gray. There are also albino Chinese algae eaters. Sometimes, one can have both the orange and the gray. The one above was sent to me by someone who said the fish started out all gray and then got the orange head. Color changes for Chinese algae eaters are common. If you have a different species of fish, let me know. There are many species called "algae eaters" including Siamese algae eaters, Chinese algae eaters, otocinclus, and plecostomus species.

To post photos, they must first be on a web site somewhere. There are many sites that let you post photos for free. Once on-line, you can click on "IMG" when creating a message and insert the web site address (URL) for the photo. It then shows up in the message like the one I did here.