Angel fish pair fighting

[megan_jones]

After a bad incident where my female angel was trapped in an ornament in my tank she has a lot of injuries. When I found her the pairs large clutch of wrigglers had disappeared and ever since the pair have been fighting constantly and both are injuring each other. Until now there had been very little fighting between the pair.

Does anyone know why they have become so aggressive or what I can do to help them? I've already set up a tank divider in the middle of the tank but it's not large enough for it to become a long term situation.




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[emilygupps]

Poor thing. Those fins! Are there any dither fish in the tank?


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[megan_jones]

I've divided it so she's alone now and I've put metafix in the water which should help the wounds heal, she's swimming and seems fine as well so she should be alright


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[emilygupps]

I've read that adding some peaceful fish can distract the couple from fighting each other. I'm not sure if that means they focus on killing the other fish or not though. Andy sagar is the go to guy for angels.


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[megan_jones]

Hmm I might try it, I do have some small peaceful fish in another tank which I removed from this one when the angels laid eggs


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[gilpi]

Fish can heal pretty good from this type of injuries providing water and diet are good, wow so I guess the damage was more from being stuck than the fight itself?
This has been my love hate relationship with angels, there is always one that becomes very aggressive, where I've had multiple angels by removing the aggressor, another has taken its place!
At the moment I have a pair for over a year (don't know the sex) together with Bolivian rams and all is good.
Angels are beautiful fish but tricky to keep together, is like a toss of the dice, you have to just watch how they behave in groups or pairs and be ready to separate them if you have to.



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[megan_jones]

Yeah I think the majority of the injuries were caused by the ornament but when I found him stuck the otter fish was attacking him already and they hardly stopped until I divided the tank the next morning.
Do you think it would be ok to try and reintroduce them after a few days once they've calmed down as they've never been aggressive before, or do you think that they will continue to fight?


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[gilpi]

I don't think there's an answer for that. I'd say if you want, put them back together and keep an eye on them. What size tank are they in?


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[megan_jones]

They're in a 20g at the moment but they've been growing recently and I was going to get them a 30g tall tank to breed in but if I can't keep them together I'm not sure what would be best


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[gilpi]

A 30g tall would good for a pair. I'm sorry to say there's no set rules when it comes to their behavior and they're even hard to sex till you see them pairing up.
It's a wait and see kind of thing.
Maybe someone else can chime on this?

 

[megan_jones]

I know I've got a male and female already as they've laid eggs twice now and been good parents. it's just odd that since the last batch disappeared they won't stop fighting since they've been good together for about a year and a half now


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