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Miller's FFF Musings



Roger S. Miller said:

>I also made the mistake of putting male guppies in with my flag fish. >I
managed to get them back out again before the damage was fatal, but >some
will never fully recover.

He then says:

>American Flag fish are interesting and attractive fish.  Sometimes >the
females or maybe non-breeding males or juveniles can be >reasonable tank
partners, but great community fish they are *not*.  >Mine are now in a
single-species tank with plants they don't seem to >bother.  

So...if you were fully aware of the fact that single-sex arrangements of
Females and Non-breeding males or Females w/ juvenile males are in fact the
ones to make good community fish or "reasonable tank partners" as you
grudgingly described it, then why the H*** did you put those fancy male
guppies in with adult male and female FFF?!  Just what did you expect?
Doesn't that seem contradictory?

I am much more sympathetic to Catherine's experience ...she just didn't
know what she should have done. I already explained the dynamics of the
FFF's breeding behavior and won't again, especially when you admitted that
you knew better.  For whatever reason, you refused to setup the appropriate
fancy guppy/ FFF arrangement that would have worked and your fish suffered
from your odd oversight.

To the best of my knowledge, Dwarf Cichlids [for example] mostly make good
community fish.  Yet we all know how aggressive and territorial they all
get when they are breeding. Do we thus abandon them to Cichlid only tanks?
Nonsense!  Instead we prevent them from breeding so we can enjoy them w/
other inhabitants.  FFF breed much more easily than do Dwarf Cichlids and
the male becomes aggressive once courtship begins.  Knowing this, separate
mature males from females if you want community aquarium harmony.  Check
out this article by our own Wright Huntley:
http://www.aquafind.com/articles/jordan.html


Miller continues:

>I have seen them eat the long, soft variety of hair algae and
>effectively remove it from a tank, but that's the only kind of algae
>I've seen them work over.  I don't have many problems with that kind >of
algae, so I don't really care that much.


A LOT of the rest of us do, and we care.. a LOT!


Miller says:

>  I do have problems with >a tough short-haired algae that hugs the
>substrate and thrives in dim
>light.  They don't do much at all about that stuff. 

A "Tough-Short-haired-algae".."Thrives in dim light".. Doesn't that sound
like STAGHORN algae or some BBA variant?  Whoever heard of TOUGH hair
algae??  Personally, I've never had a problem w/ this algae so I can only
go on what others told me:  The FFF will nip the ends off of this stuff
(some say they don't).  They can't remove what's left (all agree).  I'm
told this does have a deleterious effect on that algae, but the FFF don't
really dig it.


Miller Says:

>I put a group of young ruby barbs into my 55 gallon tank to control >the
same kind of algae that I was trying to get the American-Flag >fish to
control in a 10 gallon tank.  The ruby barbs did their job >fairly quickly,
but the flag fish have not.  
>

He later says:

>I have seen them eat the long, soft variety of hair algae and
>effectively remove it from a tank, but that's the only kind of algae
>I've seen them work over. 
>

Now, I'm totally confused with the inherent contradictions in your musings.
 First, you seem to suggest they don't eat the hair algae then you say the
effectively remove it.  Which is it?  Besides the fact that few people have
ever reported Ruby barbs consistently as "effective Algae eaters" (which
algae?) the nebulousness of your first "algae" description can be
interpreted several ways.

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