New American Flagfish!

[Luananeko]

My new American Flagfish came today! His colors are still a little washed out from the journey, but he's already come out of hiding and is eating

My betta has been fascinated by him... Kept following and staring at him, with the occassional "Hey, I'm top fish" flare which the Flagfish was completely oblivious to and kept munching away... The betta seems to be fine now that he's reassured himself his dominance isn't in question.

 

[jetajockey]

Cool, I like flagfish. The males can be particularly aggressive, though, but I have heard of successful community tanks with them. I think their hardiness makes them a great pond fish as well.

 

[Luananeko]

So far the only thing he's taken any nips at are plants, but I'm keeping an eye on him just to be sure... He's followed the tetras a little bit like he was trying to school with them, but otherwise he seems to be oblivious to any fish that passes near him.

 

[alLexX]

oooo nice. he looks kinda like a jewel cichlid

 

[Luananeko]

He's been super friendly so far too, which is a nice surprise. I heard that they can be really shy and hide a lot in a well lit tank, but he's actually been coming right up to the front glass in the open swimming area to swim back and forth and look at me

 

[jpchin]

i have my dwarf flag in a community tank for about 2 months and he gets along with eveyone. no problems at all. hope you have the same experience with yours. when they color up they are beautiful. mine has a lot of green with a cast of yellow. it's very nice. good luck.

 

[jpchin]

forgot to say mine comes up to the glass and swims back and forth whenever he sees me. they are very friendly fish. when i feed the live black worms he goes CRAZY along with all the other fish. my guy never hides except to sit under some of the plants at night.

 

[DragonFish71]

Flags are awesome little guys. I love the heck out of mine.

 

[Luananeko]

Hmmm, it looks like there may have been some nips... Most of my male guppies had what looks like a single bite mark out of each of their tails. Hopefully it's just initial boundary setting since I saw one of the guppies thinking the flagfish was a female guppy, but I'll keep an eye out for if it goes any further. From what I've read flagfish can be pretty nippy if they're hungry, so I might just need to give him a time out for a day or so to let him fill his tummy before letting him loose again. Really don't want to have to take him to my LFS when I specifically had him shipped

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Very nice little fish. Don't have them over here.

 

[Luananeko]

Update:
Flagfish is having a time-out in a floating, clear breeding box since he seems to have decided that guppy tails make excellent snacks... I also saw him taking "tastes" of the tetras. I've read that most of their aggression is due to having bottomless pits for stomachs, so hopefully I can get him full enough while he's in the isolation box so that when his time-out is over in a few days he won't keep chasing the other fish...

If that still doesn't work, I have some in-store credits for a couple plants that didn't survive the shipping that I can use to grab some females to distract him with. As always, the final fallback plan is to take him to my LFS to re-home if the prior two methods don't work

 

[DragonFish71]

Ah, yes the females will help with his aggression. Once he gets some friends, he'll hang out with them instead of eating guppy tails.

By the way, they are like most "nippy" types, the long flowing colorful fins are an attraction. My male would harass my long finned danios until I found him some girls and another male.

 

[Luananeko]

So what I'm hearing is that he's a typical male; everything is secondary when there's some girls around to chase ? Looks like the minimum order has been changed since I bought him, so I have to get no less than 3 additional flagfish... Would 2 girls, 1 boy be a good mix, or should I stick to 3 girls to thoroughly distract him?

 

[DragonFish71]

Try to keep the numbers even. If you can get 3 girls and another male it should be good. Sometimes if there are too many females, the male or even the one he pairs with will kill them. It really depends on his tempement, some like a harem, some don't. One of my males has 2 females and my other male has 1.

 

[Luananeko]

Update:
After 3 days in the floating isolation chamber my flagfish is still getting excited when it sees the guppies (or any other fish outside my betta really). I've been trying to make sure he's had no shortage of food, but he ignores the algae discs and freeze dried bloodworms. Only thing he goes for are frozen spirulina brine shrimp, which are difficult to portion for one fish.

I don't think it's fair to make him stay in the isolation chamber until the next batch of flag fish are shipped to me, so he'll probably need to be taken to my LFS to be rehomed... Which opens up a new possibility since I haven't ordered the new flagfish yet... Are juveniles less ornery than the adults? I know that in Angelfish at least they tend to ignore tetras they grow up with, but an adult added to a tank with tetras tends to eat them. Does the same go for Flagfish?