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I have resently bought a flying fox as in the 1. But he seems to folow the zebra danios. Should i get another for companie or is this just because he is new to the tank. Eny experiances with this fish will help to.

the tank is a 180 liter 40 gallon tank. It is a case of as he hangs around with the zebra danios is this something to worrie about. They see to get on fine togather but i did not know if this should happen can eny one help

I have never personally had a flying fox, but they are listed as peaceful community fish. As long as he is not acting aggressively towards your zebra danios I wouldn't worry about him too much, just keep an eye on him. I would get another one just incase he is lonely, but only if you have suffiecient room.

Hi Juwel,

Flying fox really active fishes. In your case they are just being playful, and it's a good thing that they are chasing ur danios cause danios are fast fishes. They do tend to get aggresive as age increases but I find it only occures within their own species. Does ur flying fox zips away from ur view when u approch ur tank?
Btw what else u have in that tank?

Gee

Gee

!!I think I just learned somthing new!!

no i just carrys on with what it was doing. I have 19 neons, 7 dnios, i female dwarf gourami. and that is it he seems to be doing realy well keep your comments comming

Do not get another one, they get really aggressive with their own species (or similar) as they get older. They also stop eating algae as they reach adulthood. They do not get along with rainbow sharks, siamese algae eaters or other fox like fish.
I finally took mine back to the LFS and got otos instead.
There is also a chance that what you have is a SAE, they are often sold as flying foxes, they look very similar, I have noticed though that they are lacking in the lighter stripe above their dark stripe, they get a more rounded belly than the fox I had did and they like to swim with other fish. My SAE spends a lot of time 'schooling' with my tiger barbs and my danios, sometimes he joins an oto for lunch. He's a very personable fish. I bought him at the same time as the fox, from the same tank and he's the one I kept.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

It has a white line then a black one which goes from the nose to the start of the tail fin. then a sort of white fin that shimmers gold. Then grey/silver on the top of him.

Does eny one know exactly what he is

and keep your experiances and comments coming

Yes, like rainbow sharks and red tail black sharks,
the flying foxes close cousins, they are aggressive
to conspecifics and should not be kept more than 1 in a tank unless it is very large.


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thanks for that i wont get another but keep ur comments comming

It has a white line then a black one which goes from the nose to the start of the tail fin. then a sort of white fin that shimmers gold. Then grey/silver on the top of him.

sounds like a flying fox (epalzeorhynchus kallopterus) to me ...

I have one that's 10 years old by now (almost 9"-20 cm long) and it still is the show piece in my (152 gal., 500 liter) tank. Give it the opportunity to hide when it feels like doing so and it will be the best fish you ever kept.
It will chase other fish occasionally, but don't worry about that, it's just playing.
Just be sure the other fish in the tank are fish that can handle a little rough play ...

thanks for that atleast i now know he is a real flying fox
Keep your comments comming

Its hard to be sure which fish you have , they are often missold and misidentified, regular flying foxes can get big and be a bit aggressive, but siamese flying foxes are great.

I have 12 siamese flying foxes, and thats 6 in two tanks, all mature adults, they rarely fight and when they do theres never an injury, they are not a solitary fish and living in loose groups suits them. They eat almost anything, and algae is an important component of their diet,probably around 40% or so, they do not give up eating it when they get older, they just get a bit more versatile with the diet. What they dont tend to do is skim glass when they get older, although plants and bogwood will still be cleaned regularly. They are great community fish with a couple of slight warnings a) they can be e to rapid flight behaviour and this will scare the crap out of smaller fish , and b) they get bigger and stockier than a lot of people realise. You could get another two in a 40 gallon no problem as long as theres enough decoration or large leaved plants to sit on, and your not otherwise overstocked.You might wanna go bigger on the tank in a couple of years to give them some swimming space, but they dont grow that quickly, takes over a year to get to 4 inches, then they slow down a bit.

For proof , if you hated another fish and you were in an 8 foot tank, would you do this?

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_2689.jpg

Notice thats actually 3 sat on the same plant,and sometimes all 6 line up at the front of the tank nose to tail waiting for the algae wafers to go in.

Very Cute!

My fox had no aggression problems until I added 2 rainbow sharks, then they were all three picking on my poor SAE and some of the other fish as well. I decided to keep the one being picked on and sent the bullies back to the store, the four fish really shouldn't have been in the tank together (25g long) but I got the sharks on some bad advice. I think you're right in that they may like company in a much larger tank that is not overstocked, mine was pushing the limits then for sure!

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Longhaired,
your fish are actually Siamese Algae Eaters,
of the species Crosscheilus Siamensis.
Juwels fish is a Flying Fox, of the species
Epalzeorhynchus Kallopterus.
Totally different fish.
Flying Foxes are of a similar temperment
to that of Red Tail Black Sharks and Rainbow Sharks,
and do not usually tolerate others of the same kind
in the tank.
SAE's are schooling fish, and are quite gregarious
and rarely aggressive towards each other.
Very nice specimens you have too!


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yuppers I know, I was editing my post when you corrected me , lol. Still at least theres a picture comparative so you can tell which is which, in fact, have a better shot of an sae for id purposes.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_2441.jpg

lol, excuse the algae, he was getting to it .

In fact when I bought these guys they had flying foxes and false flying foxes, im so glad I chose these!

Just to give you a good example of a proper flying fox -here is one, cos horribly a lot of those listed on google are sae's, it looks like loads of people dont know the difference.

http://aquafish.iespana.es/images/peces/dulce_tropical/ciprinidos/f-epalzeorhynchus.jpg

Look at that fat tummy! You can tell he's been eating really well. My SAE gets that way when I toss in frozen bloodworms, he loves them!
I figured it was an SAE but I wasn't too sure, couldn't see the sides really well. And the tummy looked too round compared to the way my fox always looked. He never did get a fat tummy, but he was getting big by the time I gave him the boot.


"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus