I recently obtained a female FFF.
Quick question:
Do these things eat java fern?
Florida Flagfish
Started by
Guest_Gambusia_*
, Mar 01 2007 09:38 AM
17 replies to this topic
#4
Guest_nativecajun_*
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Posted 01 March 2007 - 10:53 AM
I recently obtained a female FFF.
Quick question:
Do these things eat java fern?
Casper has a few of the Florida Flag Fish and he has tons of plants in his tank. And I do mean tons. Not in weight
But amount. That 55 of his you could not see the back of the tank. I believe if fed right they would not harm your plants at all. I am not certain what all plants he had in there but he had several kind. You may want to pm him and ask. Beautiful fish and worth keeping. They did not look anything like I thought they would. I had only seen photos of them in the field guide and I thought they would be shaped like a sailfin molly or a platty. The are much more disk shaped like a sunfish. Sort of a cross between looking like a molly and a sunfish and much larger than I imagined they would get. Not a monster but just larger than I imagined them. None of his plants looked at though they had been chewed on and he had some relativly fine leaved plants in there.
#5
Guest_ashtonmj_*
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Posted 01 March 2007 - 11:11 AM
While I have observed mine nipping at plants, they were most likely eating things on the plants themselves. None of the plants from the tub I held them in over the summer had any damage from fish. I do not believe they eat vascular plants, but they do a great job of cleaning glass and wood of any hair algae. I have a pair in a heavily java moss filled 5 gallon and only feed them half a tubifex worm cube once a week. They are fat as can be because they eat algae all day long.
#7
Guest_Gambusia_*
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Posted 12 March 2007 - 06:01 PM
I got a male today.
Another question:
Would there be problems with putting a pair of flagfish in a 36 gallon patio pond with some bluefin killifish over the summer?
The flags and bluefins I have are in a 10 gallon tank currently with some guppies and gambusia waiting to be put outside this spring in my free standing patio pond when I set it up again.
Thanks
Another question:
Would there be problems with putting a pair of flagfish in a 36 gallon patio pond with some bluefin killifish over the summer?
The flags and bluefins I have are in a 10 gallon tank currently with some guppies and gambusia waiting to be put outside this spring in my free standing patio pond when I set it up again.
Thanks
#8
Guest_ashtonmj_*
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Posted 12 March 2007 - 08:26 PM
The only problem you will have is ending up with 25-50 more flagfish. I put a pair out in a 15 gallon tub that also had a pair of golden topminnows and ended up with about two to three dozen FFF. Oddly enough, after some very minimal mortality, sending out some fish, what I was left with was a heavy F:M ratio, which doesn't bode well for this year.
#10
Guest_ashtonmj_*
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Posted 13 March 2007 - 06:43 PM
Elodea. That's it. I probably had too much actually. There was a layer of duckweed on top too and it helped keep temp relatively stable even in the really hot parts of the summer when the tub would get really hot. No substrate other than detritus and muck. I let it sit empty of fish with no aeration for a week to build up some critters inside put in a sponge filter, added the fish, and let them do their thing.
#13
Guest_Kanus_*
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Posted 14 March 2007 - 09:54 PM
I have had FFF spawn in two different tanks of mine. Their habits are quite interesting. In my 10g, the male set up a territory about 4 inches around and chased the females into it to spawn near the surface in the roots of my salvinia, literally turning upside down to do so. He then ignored the nest site. In my 29g, one male set up a territory around a small clump of baby's tears/pearlgrass I have in there. He spawned repeatedly with one female over the course of about an hour, and viciously protected the area for a few days.
Apparently if in shallow water they will spawn near the surface and abandon the nest as the fry are able to readily reach the surface to fill their swim bladders and apparently suffer lower mortality. This is why the male does not protect the eggs. However, in deep water, less fry are able to fill their swim bladders (I've heard rumors that the father will mouth them and take them to the surface) and therefore often sustain higher mortality, which is why the male protects the eggs to lower egg mortality and compensate for higher fry mortality.
It would be hard for you to provide conditions where they wouldn't spawn.
Great fish though.
Apparently if in shallow water they will spawn near the surface and abandon the nest as the fry are able to readily reach the surface to fill their swim bladders and apparently suffer lower mortality. This is why the male does not protect the eggs. However, in deep water, less fry are able to fill their swim bladders (I've heard rumors that the father will mouth them and take them to the surface) and therefore often sustain higher mortality, which is why the male protects the eggs to lower egg mortality and compensate for higher fry mortality.
It would be hard for you to provide conditions where they wouldn't spawn.
Great fish though.
#15
Guest_Elgonte_*
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Posted 15 March 2007 - 09:42 AM
Yes they do have interesting habits. Studys show that when there are predators present, such as Gambusia, or even female flagfish, the males will protect the nest and fan the eggs. If the males are in an aquarium with just the eggs (the females is removed) then the males will eat the eggs. When I had some spawn, I left the other fish in there, and he fanned them for about a week and then ate them.
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