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Algae Crumpler
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Very unusual species!! I have one Twig in a 55g and he is 6in.+ ,but does not disturb/damage plants. Just spends most of his time perched and very still- and nearly blends in!! Also keeps the front glass clean of any algae. Not very shy, I can carefully touch his back when I clean the tank and he does not move at all. The body reminds me of a lizard more so than fish scales.
Steph
very cool fish, always working, i had an algea problem when i first bought him and with in 1 day all my algea was gone, constantly cleaning the glass, plants, sand and my drift wood. i can put my hand in the water and the fish comes and sucks on my hand very cool.
ricedoc
I have been keeping both the regular Farowella and the "royal" Farowella for many years and have found them to be a very important fish for the naturally planted aquaria. They are primarialy a vegetarian species prefering differing types of algae but will readily accept live worms (tubifex and blackworms). If you have a problem with algae accumulating on the leaves of your plants (particularly aquatic grasses) these are the fish to remedy your problem. They will readily eat the algae off the leaves without doing (much) harm to the plant. However they only do really well if there is a sexed mating pair or by themselves alone. Males are territorial and will chase each other throughout the tank until one of them dies (usually the smaller one) I have also had success in breeding them, however it is extremely difficult and involves changing water hardness (down to 10-25ppm from 50-80ppm), TONS of blackwater extract, raising the temperature (to 86 deg. F.) changing the light cycle (from 16hrs. to 19 hrs.) Increasing CO2 levels, adding fresh fruit (mango ,papaya and fig),fresh vegtables (kale, chard and other dark leafy vegtables) and live worms to the diet. PH of 6.5 to 6.0 (down from 7.0), extremely low nitrite, nitrate, ammonia and phosphorous levels. The will only breed in 20 gallon or larger tanks that are very heavily planted with primarialy grasses and swords, and long horizontal pieces of driftwood ( they seem to prefer Mangrove or manzinita wood over all others) so thick that viewing them is almost impossible! DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BREED THESE FISH UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERT AT WATER QUALITY CONTROL! The problems occur when you begin changing conditions. The extremely low water hardness levels make maintaining PH extremely difficult, especially due to the amount of blackwater extract and CO2 needed, if you don't watch the PH you'll end up with a tank full of ACID! Plus the addition of fruit (sugar)to thier diet (essential for breeding) makes the tank the perfect home for every type of airborne bacteria, mold and yeast that can get in. They are wonderful fish and I will always have them, but like I said, if you don't know how to controll the water conditions EXACTLY, they will never breed. But other than that they are one of the most interesting and bizarre fish you could get! Enjoy!
Gary
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