Angel mates

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T-Rexx

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 20, 2011
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Bay Area, California
Would multiple angel fish together in one tank be a good idea? it's a 60 gallon. I already have 2, which may, or may not be a mated pair. I've read online lots of different opinions. One said you shouldn't put too many angels together because they get aggressive toward each other (for mating space??). And other websites say 1 angel or more than 3. And some say at least 6 or more. Im super confused.
 
I've been keeping angels for over 30 years and currently have 12 in a 220g tank. Your situation is alittle different as you obviously already have 2 adult angels. How big are they, body the size of a half dollar, a silver dollar, or ??? How long have you had them?

Reason for the questions is this... when you already have adult angels established in a tank they see the tank as "theirs". They usually won't take to the addition of other angels and will pick on them relentlessly. You can remove the 2 originals, completely rescape and change how the tank looks, add the new angels, then add the old angels last. This works "sometimes". Or you can rehome the old angels and start with 6 babies. Angels do better with either 1, 2, or over 6. The reason for 6 or more is because at those amounts aggresssion is split up and no one fish tends to get picked on when say you have 3. With 3, you can have 2 pair up and harass the 3rd to death. You have a 60 so 6 juvies would work but as they mature and possibly pair up you may have to remove non paired angels as they are most likely to get harassed. Also be sure to have large plants like an amazon sword or two to help break the line of sight up in the tank.
 
I've been keeping angels for over 30 years and currently have 12 in a 220g tank. Your situation is alittle different as you obviously already have 2 adult angels. How big are they, body the size of a half dollar, a silver dollar, or ??? How long have you had them?

Reason for the questions is this... when you already have adult angels established in a tank they see the tank as "theirs". They usually won't take to the addition of other angels and will pick on them relentlessly. You can remove the 2 originals, completely rescape and change how the tank looks, add the new angels, then add the old angels last. This works "sometimes". Or you can rehome the old angels and start with 6 babies. Angels do better with either 1, 2, or over 6. The reason for 6 or more is because at those amounts aggresssion is split up and no one fish tends to get picked on when say you have 3. With 3, you can have 2 pair up and harass the 3rd to death. You have a 60 so 6 juvies would work but as they mature and possibly pair up you may have to remove non paired angels as they are most likely to get harassed. Also be sure to have large plants like an amazon sword or two to help break the line of sight up in the tank.

Oh wow! Thanks Im super glad you responded!!! That really helps! Solves all questions! & it makes sense why I'm getting so many different answers from online. Yea Id guesstimate the body of my angels to be 2 - 2 1/2 inches. ill post a pick that i took a bit ago. Ive had them for a while. id probably say the yellow angel is about 6/7 months, the white angel a little less than that.. 4-5. They already act like they own the tank, so adding others would probably be a bad idea. but ill know for next time for sure!
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Rivercats is what I would consider an angel expert haha. The rescaping then adding all the angels back has worked for me in the past, recently I added two new small angels to my previous two and I didn't change anything, worked out fine for me. I have one larger angel, about 3.5 inches nose to tail, and he used to bully a smaller angel, then I added the other two (that's one 3.5", two 2", and one dime size if anyone's trying to keep track) and it has seemed to make every angel super nonaggressive. Every angel has their own personality so who knows what you've got.

You can try adding two more, then when they grow up and you can sex them rehome or return them if its not a 1:1 m:f ratio, you can also sometimes have more females in a group and the male will swing between them
 
Not an expert by far Zimm just learned alot by trail, error, and observation over the years, but thanks. To the original OP your angels will be coming into breeding age at around 8 months. Anytime after that you could find out if you have a pair. Now mind you sometimes angels will get alittle confused shall we say and make same sex pairs but just to give you some info... If you see the two of them cleaning an area (leaf, filter tube, side of tank) for a couple 2-3 hours, look and see if their breeding tubes have dropped. In a female her tube will look like a blunt pencil eraser and the males will look like a sharpened pencil tip. The females is much easier to see than the males. If the tubes are correct in each one you have a pair but as I said some angels with no mate choice will still try to spawn.
 
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