Flagtail ID

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I am trying to figure out why my flagtail has almost no red on him. It seems I may have gotten number 3 (in picture above) from Rapps. His tail has a very faint reddish yellow color, some dots that fade away the closer you get to midway up his body, and no red on his lower fins.

This sucks :( . Not the prettiest fish in the world, but follow my jardini around the tank like a lost puppy.
 
Bderick67 said:
Mine seems to have the finnage of the taeniarus and the scale pattern of the insignis. Maybe a hybrid of the two
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If that illustration is accurate, then the vast majority of us must have hybrids, because I haven't found any pics of adult specimens with either the spotting of that taeniurus or the finnage and lack of black coloration around the gills of that insignis.


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Greg31 said:
I am trying to figure out why my flagtail has almost no red on him. It seems I may have gotten number 3 (in picture above) from Rapps. His tail has a very faint reddish yellow color, some dots that fade away the closer you get to midway up his body, and no red on his lower fins.

This sucks :( . Not the prettiest fish in the world, but follow my jardini around the tank like a lost puppy.
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If it has spots, it isn't S. kneri. S. kneri have pretty distinct horizontal black stripes as juvies that fade to a solid silver body as adults. Yours is most likely the yellow-finned variant (which 12 Volt Man brought up earlier) of taeniurus or insignis.

And it's funny you mention how yours follows your jar around; mine does the same with my silver aro, and I always thought it was odd. I've thought about getting a school of tinfoils so it would have some relatively more natural companions (don't have $120-240 to buy a group of flagtails), but I decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble of growing them out.


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Yeah, that stinks though. I got mine from rapps too! I always heard the flagtails dont do well in group in home aquaria either.
 
Greg31 said:
Yeah, that stinks though. I got mine from rapps too! I always heard the flagtails dont do well in group in home aquaria either.
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Flagtails are schooling fish, so they naturally prefer to be in groups. The only time I've heard of them being aggressive toward eachother is when they're kept in pairs (although mine had apparently spent most of its life with another flagtail before it was traded in to a lfs, but there wasn't any evidence of aggression between them).


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They thrive alone or in groups of 5 or more. With small groups they fight a lot while trying to establish dominance. With large groups, they are able to establish more structure.

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I think they just reclassified the same fish so you have the two names. I have raised them and they all have very good color, but sometimes they fade a bit over the years, and sometimes not. Diet may be a concern.
 
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