# Flagtail - Semaprochilodus taeniurus and algae?



## Chronick (Apr 27, 2010)

hi BCAquaria, today i was at roger's pet store and i met a guy named eric who told me that flagtails are good for eating algae and will actually eat blackbeard algae. For those who don't know, blackbeard algae is a huge pain to get rid of. Unfortunately, i have it in my 180 gallon so i can't use amanos and SAEs to help get rid of it cause all my fish it there will eat them. anyways, to get rid of the existing algae, will Flagtails do the job? if not, what fish are big enough so that they won't get killed by my 10 inch channa pleuro snakeheads and will help eat the algae?

thanks in advance!


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

Get a black shark. I dont think your snakehead will attack it as they will fight back aggressively. Flagtail can do the job too but make sure they are much bigger than the pleuro or they will rip it apart especially when hungry.


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## Chronick (Apr 27, 2010)

King-eL said:


> Get a black shark. I dont think your snakehead will attack it as they will fight back aggressively. Flagtail can do the job too but make sure they are much bigger than the pleuro or they will rip it apart especially when hungry.


going to be hard to find a flagtail bigger than 9inches, expensive too... how well do black sharks do the job?


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

They do a really good job. They are always rasping algae off the wall almost non stop.


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## Chronick (Apr 27, 2010)

King-eL said:


> They do a really good job. They are always rasping algae off the wall almost non stop.


i take it they do a much better job of cleaning algae in comparison to flagtails? personally i think flagtails are nicer looking and would rather get a few flagtails but if black sharks do a better job i'll get a couple black sharks


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't think flagtail eat black hair aglae.


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

i have never seen my flagtail eat BBA.


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## Chronick (Apr 27, 2010)

charles said:


> I don't think flagtail eat black hair aglae.


oh hmm ok then, what larger fish eat black beard algae? black sharks and any others?


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Siamese algae eaters get pretty big and eat BBA, but the problem is the amount of BBA they will eat is inversely proportional to their size, ie, they like algae less and less as they grow because they figure out fish food is better.


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## Chronick (Apr 27, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Siamese algae eaters get pretty big and eat BBA, but the problem is the amount of BBA they will eat is inversely proportional to their size, ie, they like algae less and less as they grow because they figure out fish food is better.


yeah, i heard that at a big size SAE don't do a good job cleaning the tank + it's going to be hard to find a big enough SAE that my snakehead won't kill.


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

I've seen my flagtail eat BBA occasionally but there is still a ton of it in my tank right now.


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Siamese algae eaters get pretty big and eat BBA, but the problem is the amount of BBA they will eat is inversely proportional to their size, ie, they like algae less and less as they grow because they figure out fish food is better.


He wants them in his occelated snakehead, SAE will become a snack once place in there. It won't last a second. SAE only grows to 6". A 10" pleuro will rip apart most cyprinid even bigger than them. MY 9" pleuro before ripped apart a 13" cigar shark. Only cyprinid I was able to keep with them was a black shark even smaller than them and it was able to handle itself.


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## Chronick (Apr 27, 2010)

King-eL said:


> He wants them in his occelated snakehead, SAE will become a snack once place in there. It won't last a second. SAE only grows to 6". A 10" pleuro will rip apart most cyprinid even bigger than them. MY 9" pleuro before ripped apart a 13" cigar shark. Only cyprinid I was able to keep with them was a black shark even smaller than them and it was able to handle itself.


looks like i'll be searching for a big black shark but im going to try flagtails anyways. thanks for the help everyone


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