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American Flag Fish Observations.



Hello APDer's,

With all of the recent talk about the "American Flag Fish", I wanted to 
pitch in my experiences with this little terror.  After reading about how 
the fish could be ideal for removing algae, I decided to purchase a pair of 
females to try and control BBA in one of my tanks.  At the time I had some 
beautiful Angelfish in this tank and the tank was very heavily planted.  
This particular tank was my pride and joy.  Well, everyone knows the story 
about how troublesome these little fish are.  My angelfish's tails were 
mangels in about a week and numerous plants were stripped down to the stems. 
  Now, I thought that this was due to the fact I don't feed as often as I 
should to keep algae in check.  So, I increased the frequency of feedings 
and made sure I noticed that the American flag fish got their fair share of 
the food.  It do absolutely NO good.

In about two weeks, I had lost about half of my plants and my angelfish were 
sick and the tails heavily damaged.  Needless to say, I was distraught.  I 
never thought that the fish were responsible, instead thinking that the 
pleco had gone on a rampage.  That was until I watched the American flag 
fish tear a chunk out of my angelfish's tail and tear pieces of a large 
Amazon sowrd plant.  That was when I decided that the two had to go back to 
the pet store.  I traded for some nice peaceful ottocinclus catfish instead 
and my fish and plants in the tank were much happier for it.

So, to me it's obvious that these fish were not designed for long term algae 
control.  I was very displeased with these fish and wouldn't recommend them 
for algae control.

Bailin Shaw
Dallas,Texas
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