Flagtail power

[Matteus]

Last night I was getting a tank ready to qt a new fish arrival. I traded the current fish in the tank so I wanted to keep the tank fully cycled for the next few days until the new arrival shows up.

So I threw this little 4” flagtail in the qt tank. It was loaded with diatoms to the point I couldn’t see through the sides of the glass clearly and the back was almost entirely browned out.

I was expecting the ft to take a week or two to get it in half decent shape, but this morning woke up to this.

I am amazed at how fast this happened? And even more amazed at the fact it all seemed to happen in the dark. Are these guys typically nocturnal as well as diurnal? Weird but cool.

Just thought I would share this. Unfortunately I didn’t think to take a before picture

 

[Tobiassorensen]

Flagtails are amazing on cleaning algae up. I used to have used to have an major outbreak of hairalgae in one tank. Chucked the flagtail in there an it took two days then everything was clean. I rehomed my flagtail to a friend a couple of weeks ago and now that tank is full of algae again. Both diatoms and hairalgae. Gotta get a new flagtail soon.

 

[islandguy11]

Holy Hoover Matthew, just goes to show FT's are the Kings of Aquarium Cleaners -- I'd be interested to see if anyone could suggest a better all-around Kirby like cleaner (let alone one as cute). Maybe better kept a secret though, lest they go the way of the pleco and people start cramming them in 55's with Oscars

Btw, that's a quite nice looking QT tank; looks made to make a fish feel comfortable.

 

[Fishnerd360]

I don't have a tank big enough for a flagtail but my lfs has them all the time. Do you think I could get one for a little bit to clean up some algae in my tank and then give it back to the store?

 

[Matteus]

Honestly this has really helped me realize how much I love these guys.

Funny enough. I’m noticing that there are different types of ft. Like there are lots of other types of fish that grow different sizes and whatnot. This one seems to be one of the smaller types. Some call them the yellow tailed variety. I think this guy will max out at 6-7”. I’ve had it about a year now and it has hardly grown an inch to be a full 4” now. I have another 2 of a similar size that are even much older yet.

 

[Fishnerd360]

Honestly this has really helped me realize how much I love these guys.

Funny enough. I’m noticing that there are different types of ft. Like there are lots of other types of fish that grow different sizes and whatnot. This one seems to be one of the smaller types. Some call them the yellow tailed variety. I think this guy will max out at 6-7”. I’ve had it about a year now and it has hardly grown an inch to be a full 4” now. I have another 2 of a similar size that are even much older yet.

Any that could fit in a 45 gallon?...

 

[Matteus]

Any that could fit in a 45 gallon?...

Seems like these guys only get around 6” so I would say yes. But I have no idea how to differentiate them from one another, other than the yellow tail theory.

 

[Vancouver_98683]

Red or yellow tail flagtails will max out at a minimum of 12”-16”+ in the aquaria. Both types will even grow larger in massive tanks or the wild.

Yes, they are great at targeting algae, biofilm, and leftover food/pellets. Hands down the best vacuum fish available in our hobby. Only downside is when larger. Many will go after the slimecoat of bottom dwellers.

 

[islandguy11]

Red or yellow tail flagtails will max out at a minimum of 12”-16”+ in the aquaria. Both types will even grow larger in massive tanks or the wild.

Yes, they are great at targeting algae, biofilm, and leftover food/pellets. Hands down the best vacuum fish available in our hobby. Only downside is when larger. Many will go after the slimecoat of bottom dwellers.

Yeah I'm not so sure about the color type as being a determinant in size, I've seen some really big yellow tail FT's too (though I'm not discrediting the possibility there are smaller sized strains as Matthew notes).

Also absolutely true about being slime slurpers, esp. when larger -- in fact not only on bottom dwellers, I recently took a video of a huge FT at my LFS who keeps trying to snack on a gar's slime coat, will post in a separate thread. Before that I've seen them doing the same to big rays, so something to watch out for if one is keeping them together.

 

[Galantspeedz]

i can vouch the rays part... and the ray was about 4-5 inches, flagtail 4 inches