Weird Angel Behavior

[Jchillin]

I saw some unusual behavior in my three angels yesterday for the first time. They have never shown signs of aggression and have hung out together since I got them last December.

I noticed that one of them was pecking at another, while the third was sitting around just watching. After the pecking...the one that did the pecking would just glide backwards toward where the other was watching.

The the quiet one swam up and the one that was pecking the other, starting pecking at this one. The one that had been pecked already comes over and now a free for all pecking session starts. Things calmed down after about 5 minutes and they began hanging out together again as if nothing had happened.

What originally looked liked the beginning of a pair forming quickly dissolved. These guys are over 6 months old and are 5" each and are definitely of breeding age.

My goodness...it just occurred to me. Do I have three females?

 

[rubysoho]

perhaps they have started to establish rank? Not sure...

Just out of curiosity, are they five inches including the tail or are you just talking about their body?

BTW, for what it is worth, my angels are about 10 months old and their first spawning was around the end of April, placing them at around 8 months. So there is time. Do you have a picture of them?

 

[Jchillin]

5" (top fin to bottom fin). Click my clicky for the most recent pic (about a month and a half ago).

 

[rubysoho]

I don't know if this is a proven method of sexing but there is a big difference in the shape between the mouth and the dorsal fin of my pair. The female's is very straight back with no real curve. My male on the other hand looks like he has a forehead because there is so much curve. I have some more recent photos so I'll try to get them up. Since you are measuring from tip to tip of the fins, I'd say you definatly still have some time, but if they are creating a pecking order, then I think you are seeing the beginnings of them maturing.

 

[Jchillin]

I check their heads...which is an interesting observation...I had never thought of it. The more agressive one (let's call him "Black middle band") has a more rounded forehead. He also has really long thread like extensions on both the caudal and anal fins. The others aren't near as long.

I guess with all that finnage, he believe's he's "King of the Tank".

 

[rubysoho]

haha, yeh. Mine started showing those long threads right around the time they reached sexual maturity. Probably a month or so before their first spawn. Not sure if there is a link between the two or not.

 

[rubysoho]

Here is a pic of my male who has been mature now for about 2 months. You can see the slope between his mouth and dorsal fin which creates a foreheard.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v679/daisiesofthegalaxy/?action=view&current=Picture005.jpg

Here is a pic of both my male and female. The female is at a weird angle, she thought it was feeding time *again!* It is somewhat hard to see but you can kinda tell that she has a much straighter forehead.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v679/daisiesofthegalaxy/?action=view&current=Picture003.jpg

as an afterthought, please excuse the messy tank. I was in the middle of rearranging plants and I leave algae growing in the back side of the tank because I find my fish like to eat from it. Plus I was expecting some fry and I thought they might like the micro-organizms that live in the stuff. But alas, the fry were all eaten.

 

[Guest]

From what ive read, there is no way to sex an angel unless they are spawning. Yours having different shaped foreheads probably has nothing to do with Gender... more to do with Genetics. The same with the finnage and coloring. Depends on what genes they have for long or short fins.

 

[gheitman]

The only surefire way of sexing angelfish is to look at their breeding tubes when they are spawning or shortly thereafter. A female's breeding tube is blunt while the male's is more pointed. I remember seeing a picture once of what the breeding tubes looked like but I can't find that picture now.