# are American flagfish good for bba and hair algae?



## newkidvoodoo (Oct 1, 2003)

i got an american flagfish to deal with a hair algae outbreak that i had once. it didn't seem to eat anything but my hairgrass, so i got rid of it after a few months (maybe the hairgrass was just too tasty, and he ignored the algae?). as far as BBA goes, i haven't heard of flagfish eating it. i have a SAE, and 10 amano shrimp. the SAE eats my BBA when there is nothing else to eat, and the amano's take care of the hair algae. together, they keep my tank clean. IME these are two of the best algae eaters there are. i have heard many conflicting things about the american flagfish, i think there is a lot of variation in this species - some do a graet job, others don't.


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## abc (May 18, 2004)

*update: starve them... then they eat the bba*

Well, I got a pair of American flagfish. At first, they did not eat any of the bba that I had in my tank and only went for the flake food.

Then I moved all my java ferns into a hospital tank, I moved my flagfish there also, and refused to feed them anything. They started to munch away on the bba/hair algae without harming the java ferns. So, until I can get the water parameters right in my 75g tank, some of my plants are in my 10g hospital tank with some hungry flagfish who are finally earning their keep.

abc :icon_bigg


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## Georgiadawgger (Apr 23, 2004)

I'm glad that's working out for you. I've never really heard of putting PLANTS into a hospital tank. :icon_bigg


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