American flag fish vs SAE for BBA?
- Thread starter Mooch28
- Start date
I just ordered some American Flagfish and amanos from Floridadriftwood, After a problem with paypal, they promptly sent out my order.
I am impressed with the AFF, I had 2 rosy barbs in there for a couple of months and they grazed on the staghorn, but within three days the AFF cleared it out. Which was nice because 50% of my dwarf hairgrass was algea. I was afraid I was going to have to take it out, but know it looks better than ever.
I am impressed with the AFF, I had 2 rosy barbs in there for a couple of months and they grazed on the staghorn, but within three days the AFF cleared it out. Which was nice because 50% of my dwarf hairgrass was algea. I was afraid I was going to have to take it out, but know it looks better than ever.
So i found some SAE today for just 2.88 each and bought 2, along with a few algae eating shrimp!
I opted not too get the American Flag fish, because i heard that if hair algae does go away for good or is kept to an extreme minimum, tha AMF fill start to eat your plants....
I opted not too get the American Flag fish, because i heard that if hair algae does go away for good or is kept to an extreme minimum, tha AMF fill start to eat your plants....
Swimfins
This is as good as it gets.
I find the AFF much prefers flake food and only nibbles on the algae if they don't see me. I haven't noticed any plant damage and they've been here over 2 weeks. Good find on the sae's. My lfs still has some labled 'flying fox,' I noticed some snow peas in the tank, makes me wonder....... In the tank next to it they have 'algae eater'. I didn't tell them that they are Chinese algae eater. So buyer beware. I didn't bother telling them what they have because they think they know more than me and won't listen anyway...what can ya do?! 
Swimfins said:I find the AFF much prefers flake food and only nibbles on the algae if they don't see me. I haven't noticed any plant damage and they've been here over 2 weeks. Good find on the sae's. My lfs still has some labled 'flying fox,' I noticed some snow peas in the tank, makes me wonder....... In the tank next to it they have 'algae eater'. I didn't tell them that they are Chinese algae eater. So buyer beware. I didn't bother telling them what they have because they think they know more than me and won't listen anyway...what can ya do?!
Ya (Finally!), actually the store had both chinese and siamese algae eaters, where you could easily see the difference with the black stripe extending fully into the tail of the siamese algae eater. The chinese algae eaters also looked more pale, and a tad fater from what i saw.
I'm the one who Swimfins was refering to in an earlier post who placed my FFF in 30 gal rubbermaid tub for the summer (just one adult pair) I had 5 babies alive at end of summer (and I only did two 10% water changes in the roughly 5 months I had them outside - Georgia stays hot for a while! They were fine (and bred) in temps anywhere between 100 and 50-ish in small amounts of water (more variable temperature). I brought them inside for the winter and have about 6 more babies alive since then. I just set them up in a 55 of their own and they are looking good. I plan to have many more fry in the near future. I am considering adding 1 or 2 dwarf puffers to this tank...just cause I've been wanting then for years.
Oh, as far as their habits. I've heard varying reports of their aggressiveness, and have seen them (in my experience) to be more docile in larger shoals (similar to african cichlid tanks) They are less territorial and, naturally, to less damage to any individual fish this way. They are quite cichlid-like in their behaviors (IMO) and seem to be skittish with initial movement around tank, but gaining recognition of the lack of threat and seem inquisitive. Tetras and the like seem to be more "mindless" about their back and forth swimming.
Mine eat a variety of foods and types of food (flake, pellets, and size) which I do with all my fish. Even with my heavy feedings daily, they still are continuously graizing around for algae and food of oportunity.
My FFF were not much help with firmly established BBA but did a great job at keeping new growth to a minimum. So after addition, if you continue to remove BBA encrusted plants (or stems), it can be brought to a minimal. Of note, is the fact that I have never fully removed any specific type of algae from my tanks. I have just brought it to a state of near-erradication. I don't know that anyone can, or has, completely removed algae from a tank, but only been unable to detect any due to the lack of proliferation (in a functioning aquarium, that is). Their favorite type of algae is hair (or thread) algae. They don't touch BGA (who does!), and I haven't noticed any interest in diatom or green-spot algae ever. I give them two thumbs up for being both good-looking (many algae-eaters are drab), active, interesting personality (cichlid-like), and functional in a planted tank. Don't forget hardy in a variety of water conditions. Hope this helps.
Mine eat a variety of foods and types of food (flake, pellets, and size) which I do with all my fish. Even with my heavy feedings daily, they still are continuously graizing around for algae and food of oportunity.
My FFF were not much help with firmly established BBA but did a great job at keeping new growth to a minimum. So after addition, if you continue to remove BBA encrusted plants (or stems), it can be brought to a minimal. Of note, is the fact that I have never fully removed any specific type of algae from my tanks. I have just brought it to a state of near-erradication. I don't know that anyone can, or has, completely removed algae from a tank, but only been unable to detect any due to the lack of proliferation (in a functioning aquarium, that is). Their favorite type of algae is hair (or thread) algae. They don't touch BGA (who does!), and I haven't noticed any interest in diatom or green-spot algae ever. I give them two thumbs up for being both good-looking (many algae-eaters are drab), active, interesting personality (cichlid-like), and functional in a planted tank. Don't forget hardy in a variety of water conditions. Hope this helps.
Oh, I'm still looking for info on getting males from the breeding! I have recently noticed that all my babies have been female. I have two adult males, but don't know how much longer they will live. I have a pH of 7.7 or 7.8 and hard water with about 5.4 KH. I have heard that water chemistry affects fry in certain species. Is this true in FFF, and if so, what do I need to bring it to to get some males?
After months of checking lfs's all over I eventually got a pair of FF's oredered specially, I was so looking foreward to keeping them but after they got aclimatised they became evil little monsters.They constantly hounded my cories everytime they came out of hiding and nipped thier fins down to stumps.They attacked my platies and mollies(biting them on thier sides).The last straw was when they began nipping at my prized fancy pl*cos(mango, gold nugget etc).They did like hair algae though 
Swimfins
This is as good as it gets.
So far mine have been really nice, my rainbow shark will chase them a bit ut they're prett fast. They are always at the front of the glass begging for a hand out, and when I'm not there or they can't see me, they will go to the back and tug on some hair algae. I haven't seen any aggression, but they're too young to mate at this point. I probably will move them to another tank if they're a problem. I'm still looking forward to a school of them.
