will florida flagfish REALLY eat my stringy green hair algae?

[maronov]

I kept Florida Flagfish - at first 2 females and then 1 male and 1 female. They terrorized my Corys, ripped my Betta's fins to shreds, and eventually ended up back at the pet store (I also saw one of them make a snack of a red cherry shrimp). But, since they are technically shoaling fish, I think this behavior can be avoided if they are kept in larger groups of at least 5. Still, I was surprised because all info about this fish says that they are generally peaceful and only become territorial when breeding (which mine weren't).

On the bright side, they did eat thread algae, though I think they preferred Spirulina flake food more.

 

[J double R]

there is NOT enough copper in Excel to cause any sort of problems with inverts.. shrimp, snails, or otherwise.. unless you were to dose an EXTREME amount.

 

[vampie]

I don't know who wrote the aggressive bs about flag fish. I have 3 and they are the shyest fish in the tank. They eat hair algae like mad. I think the aggressive behaviour must have been when spawning. I think that someone doesn't really have a clue about what aggressive is though.

Just because you ended up with three shy ones doesn't mean they're all shy and peaceful.

 

[gmh]

I gave my friend a couple of my Flags and he says they gobbled up algae in his pond. Don't know about hair algae specifically. They can be rather aggressive but less so if you only keep one alone. I had a pair of Flags in the same tank with my Bolivians and the Flags pushed the Rams around. I finally moved the Rams to another tank.

 

[Pofke13LT]

I had a hair algae bloom on everything in my 75 gallon. I reluctantly got two little flagfish because the guy at LFS swore they work for hair algae. Cut back the lighting a bit and in less than a week they cleaned the tank spotless!:thm:

 

[jpappy789]

This thread is 4 years old...

 

[Rbishop]

closed.