Is my Angel lonely?

[donttaptheglass]

I have a single Black Lace Angel that I've had for about 3 months now. I bought him(?) with two other Angels so that I had a set of 3 in case a couple of them wanted to pair up. Well, after two weeks, two of them died from a water quality issue brought about from my own lack of experience, and until I had things settled I wasn't going to put any more Angels in there.

So now, my tank is happy, water params are very nice and everyone in the tank seems quite healthy and happy. My Angel eats when its feeding time and moves around the tank every now and again, but largely he just sits in an out of the way place and hangs out. He doesn't really "hide" since he doesn't try to make himself invisible by hiding behind ornaments or plants, he just kind of finds a place where nobody else is and hangs out there.

Off an on he has some bickering issues with the Dwarf Gourami, but in those cases, he tends to give as well as he gets back to the Gourami, so the sessions are usually pretty short lived and neither one is damaging the other. He'll even come to my hand when I'm feeding or when I need to reach in the tank for something. He's pretty friendly towards me and usually puts himself at center stage when people are looking into the tank.

I'm just wondering if this "wallflower" behavior is typical of an Angel that would like some companionship of its own kind?

Now that I've gotten a little better with the tank and its maintenance procedures, and I've kept him alive and kicking for 3 months now, I would feel better about putting a couple of friends in for him.

[Jchillin]

You are correct in thinking that he/she could use some company. If you could find a couple of similar age and size, that would be ok. If you do find them, turn off the lights (doing it late at night with all lights off) when you acclimate them.

Keep an eye out for aggression as at 3 months old, they are not exhibiting mating behavior, they just don't like each other invading their territory.

[donttaptheglass]

I honestly don't know if he is only 3 months old . . . he's only 3 months old to me. He's about the size of the palm of my hand (not counting my fingers) . . . ok, so you don't know how big my hand is . . . .if you put him in a box with his fins expanded, 4" long and maybe 5" high.

But good tip on the lights out thing, I'll be doing that for sure.

[Jchillin]

I would have assumed you had a normal sized hand . That being the case, you have yourself a fully mature black veiled angel. He would probably enjoy the company of a female, but could possibly be intolerate of another male. Problem, sexing angels is impossible unless you can get her from a breeder. Angels are just so intolerant when they get older.

PS - I like the new sig...what happened to the pic?

[donttaptheglass]

Luckily my LFS is pretty tolerant of me and is used to my presence at this point (picture Norm walking into Cheers), so if I got a couple more Angels and had to bring one or both of them back, they'd do it, so thats the way I'll go I think. My wife likes the marbled Angels (which is what the two were we had that died), but I'd be happy with more black laces. I wonder if that would make a difference? If it doesn't, then as is par for the course, I'll probably lose that argument with the wife.

I'm working on a new pic for my sig . . .something that more reflects my screenname and my fish. The other was pretty much just shameless advertising for my own website . . . lol I'm thinking I'm going to take my fish inhabitant list out of my sig too since its the same thing as whats in "my info" and my sig is often longer than some of my posts.

**Edit added 9pm: Just picked up two marbled Angels in the hopes that at least one of them is the opposite sex. Will let you know later how they get along as I'm following the recommendation of acclimating them in the dark.

[BrianNY]

The problem with a solitary fully grown angel is that he/she (makes no difference), has laid claim to the territory. This fish is apt to view any additional angel as an intruder, and they can be extremely aggressive towards their own kind.

Although cichlids are intelligent (and angels are cichlids), most do better in an aquarium when they don't feel a threat from another of their kind. Angels raised together from juveniles have a far better chance of "getting along", then when forced together as adults. JMO

[lovemybarbs]

Yeah, I'll be interested to find out how they get along. Angels are a little moody.

[donttaptheglass]

Well, its probably a bit early in the day to tell so far, but this morning in the first two hours with the lights on, he has shown his obvious displeasure with one of them, but he seems to follow the other one around and "hang out" He's shown no aggressiveness toward the other one whatsoever.

We got two boys in the bar here fightin' over the only woman in the place maybe?

[Zagz]

That very well may be the case. You will be able to tell quickly whether or not he will get along with both of the new additions. I would say, it would be cool to see some pics of this trio if possible. Oh and I am always shamelessly asking for pics.

[donttaptheglass]

Asking for pics is just fine . . .was happy to take a couple.

In fact now that its been a couple of hours longer, and the "invading" angel has been removed, I have noticed that the original angel is not only NOT being aggressive towards the other angel, he is aggressively chasing away anyone that comes NEAR his new friend. It's kinda funny actually.

So anyway, here's the two new buds (the black one is the original):


and here is the lonely left out soul in the QT tank awaiting his drive back to the LFS:


Hmmmm, now what will I do with $13 store credit?? I bet I think of something . . . .