What's A Good Plant For Flying Foxes?

[invader]

I have some anacharis in my 30gal tank, and my little Flying Fox has stuffed himself, eating as much of it as he can... Is there a plant that I can put in there, that he won't eat?

 

[sylvia]

Well... most fish will eat anacharis/elodea. The FF would probably be fine with amazon sword (though the plant will outgrow your tank eventualy) or java fern (which must be fastened to bogwood/rocks) and both grow easily. Actualy, I've never had a flying fox eat any plants so I suspect pretty much anything besides anacharis should be fine as anacharis just happens to be a very soft, fine-leaved plant. Try hygrophyla polysperma for something that's easy to grow (even grows for me!).

 

[invader]

Well... most fish will eat anacharis/elodea. The FF would probably be fine with amazon sword (though the plant will outgrow your tank eventualy) or java fern (which must be fastened to bogwood/rocks) and both grow easily. Actualy, I've never had a flying fox eat any plants so I suspect pretty much anything besides anacharis should be fine as anacharis just happens to be a very soft, fine-leaved plant. Try hygrophyla polysperma for something that's easy to grow (even grows for me!).

He's seriously a pig. When my boyfriend saw him after the FF cleaned out my poor anacharis plant (i only had one at the time), he named the little thing Porker, cause he was so fat! I didn't think they ate plants, because where I bought him, they had adults in the plant tank, lol. Thanks for the help though!

 

[STEVIE]

Flying foxes only eat lots of plant stuff,usually algae,when small.As he gets bigger he'll ignore all that and any plants and just eat fish flakes.They can also be a pest as they chase and fin nip other fish.
The only really good algae eater,which eats it all it's life,is the Siamese flying fox.A very similar looking fish but i've also found to be more peacefull.

 

[sylvia]

Siamese algae eaters are schooling fish so, yes, far more peaceful. Flying foxes do eat some algae into adulthood and siamese algae eaters do eat other stuff besides algae/veggies through-out their lives. Anyway, if your FF still eats plants if you add something other than the anacharis, you probably need to start feeding more blanched veggies/cucumber and, perhaps, algae waffers. It should eventualy get over its taste for plants though, like I said before, I think it's just the fact that anacharis is so very tasty

 

[invader]

He's very young, so that is probably why he has been eating all of the anacharis! I have been putting in algae wafers and zucchini (spelling?) and he usually eats it, then swims back to his anacharis. Oh well, I hope he grows out of it!