funny looking lips
Fei feng or The Flagtail is a common sight in most parts of the world, In NZ, it is much rarer. Usually found wiht oscars, arowanas, knife fish.
Fei Feng means the flying phoenix. Asians are supersiticous and so they like Arowanas (dragon fish), flagtail ( phoenix), dats (tigers) and think its gonna make them happy or live longer.... i think its a crock but lets pretend we believe it!!:D
the flagtail is amazing! they are vegetarians by nature but autopsies of them have found they eat decomposed plants, plants and random things floating in the water. insects too and sometimes small fish and fish fry.
They come from south america and is fished for food by the local tribes and people. They have no teeth but rasps on their long funny looking lips, they suck and rasp wood or tank surface for algae.
General Info and Care:
Size:
1 foot (12 Inches)
PH:
6 to 7 (South American waters tend to be acidic)
Temp:
25c to 30c
Feeding and Diet:
Veges, spirulina flakes or algae discs. Similar to Plecos.
Tankmates:
They will be ok with most fish that are as big. Not too aggressive but they are fast movers so arowanas will have trouble getting them. Be carefull of jardiniis, they are persistent. Most arowanas will stop trying when they realise they cant catch the fish. watch them with bottom dwellers, sometimes they might rasp and suck the fish and damage scales making them less tolerant to disease. Generally none agro.
Housing:
they grow to a foot, slow growers but they need space. they like o jet accross one end of the tank to the other.
comments:
These fish are cool, real characters, they have survived my jardinii which is 40 cms long and is very heavy and agro. they grow big though so be nice and put them in a tank. They are somewhat rarer in NZ. last time i saw them was almost 2 years ago, and havent seen them since.