Advice on American Flag Fish

[Crusader]

Hey everyone,

I have a 55g heavily planted tank. I have it stocked with 5 celebes rainbowfish, 2 bolivian rams, 6 cory cats, 5 otos, and 4 honey gouramis. I went into the lfs and I saw some American Flag Fish. I was instantly hooked on the look of the fish, but they said they were an aggressive fish. I have looked info up on these fish and get differing views on the aggression. Would these fish get along with my current setup? or would they terrorize the tank?

I also heard they were tremendous algae/plant eaters. I have some hair algae, but would they destroy my plants?

Finally I have a sand substrate, I know they say their color doesn't show up as well with light substrate. Has anyone had experience with this?

Thanks

 

[Joe5688]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/american-flag-fish-192135.html

 

[DragonFish71]

They do great in planted tanks. They will eat the algae and not destroy anything. Mine aren't aggressive at all. I have had my second pair in QT for a over month now with some neon tetras, corys, BN plecos and zebra loaches and the flags mind their own business, except the once when they spawned. The behavior reminded me of german blue rams. Mine are eating flake and frozen, they nibble algae wafers. I have another pair that's been in the main tank since Oct and have no problems with them either.

In general, a great fish. Beautiful, actually seems quite shy until it's feeding time.