A friend of mine gave this guy to me around 7 months ago and since they aren't really defined anywhere else I figured I'd write up a little summary of them.
Here's what I found online about these guys: http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prochilodus_nigricans
Behavior:
I've found this guy similar to the yellow tail flagtail. Aggressive towards other characins and tries to suck on anything.
Growth:
A super slow grower again similar to the yellow flagtail. Was 6" when I got it and is around 7" now. A friend of mine saw a lot of these in a fish market he visited in South America and he told me that the ones he found were around 12"-15". I'm guessing that they aren't in the hobby mainly because they don't look as good as the others.
Feeding Habits:
In my experience, the black flagtail prefers algae over any other type of food and is probably the best algae eater I've ever owned. I've noticed that the other types of flagtails stop cleaning the tank once they're accustomed to prepared foods but not this guy. I've seen that the black flagtail literally hunts for algae and in fact my buddies borrow this guy every once in a while to clean their tanks
.
Aggression:
Like I mentioned earlier, I've noticed that my guy tries to be aggressive towards other characins, but given the shape of their mouths (from the picture
thebiggerthebetter
posted) I don't see it causing much harm. They do like to suck the slime off of other fishes though. I move this guy over to my 300 to clean out the algae and if I leave it in there, it goes after my gars as soon as all the algae is cleared up.
Current tankmate(s):
The tin foil barb that photobombed the first picture isn't with me anymore. The flagtail lives with my Fly River Turtle and it works out very well because like all reptiles my turtle sheds often and the flagtail keeps him clean.
Here is a picture of the flagtail cleaning my turtle:
A picture of how clean my big tank gets, top: 24 hrs after I add the flagtail and bottom before I add it:
Here's what I found online about these guys: http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prochilodus_nigricans
Behavior:
I've found this guy similar to the yellow tail flagtail. Aggressive towards other characins and tries to suck on anything.
Growth:
A super slow grower again similar to the yellow flagtail. Was 6" when I got it and is around 7" now. A friend of mine saw a lot of these in a fish market he visited in South America and he told me that the ones he found were around 12"-15". I'm guessing that they aren't in the hobby mainly because they don't look as good as the others.
Feeding Habits:
In my experience, the black flagtail prefers algae over any other type of food and is probably the best algae eater I've ever owned. I've noticed that the other types of flagtails stop cleaning the tank once they're accustomed to prepared foods but not this guy. I've seen that the black flagtail literally hunts for algae and in fact my buddies borrow this guy every once in a while to clean their tanks
.Aggression:
Like I mentioned earlier, I've noticed that my guy tries to be aggressive towards other characins, but given the shape of their mouths (from the picture
thebiggerthebetter
posted) I don't see it causing much harm. They do like to suck the slime off of other fishes though. I move this guy over to my 300 to clean out the algae and if I leave it in there, it goes after my gars as soon as all the algae is cleared up.Current tankmate(s):
The tin foil barb that photobombed the first picture isn't with me anymore. The flagtail lives with my Fly River Turtle and it works out very well because like all reptiles my turtle sheds often and the flagtail keeps him clean
.Here is a picture of the flagtail cleaning my turtle:
A picture of how clean my big tank gets, top: 24 hrs after I add the flagtail and bottom before I add it:
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