Nipped fins - Angelfish

[CherryBarb123]

I have a pair of angelfish in my 55 gallon. They are quite young, and appear very happy, healthy and greedy I love them to bits, but recently I have noticed that their fins are being nipped by something.

The two most likely culprits are probably my Bleeding hearts or rummynose tetras. Both have adequate shoals, and I have seen one or two rummies ganging up on an angelfish Other fish in the tank are: Bolivian rams, ottos, cory cats and honey gouramis.

Their anal fin has been nipped on both of them and one has a nip out of his/her tail. Could it be the other angelfish in both cases? Could they just be "Playing" or "fighting".

The bleeding hearts are very placid, and scared of their own shadow I have seen one nip one at feeding time, but that is the only time either have shown any agression towards each other.

Could the nipped fins get infected etc? Could it be a problem?

Which are the most likely culprits?

Thanks

 

[Fishandmusic81]

How big is the tank? And what is the number on each school?

 

[CherryBarb123]

55 gallons.

6 bleeding hearts (Super placid and whimpy )
9 Rummies
5 Three lined cories
6 ottos
3 honey gouramis
2 angelfish
2 bolivians

 

[Fishandmusic81]

Those are good school sizes could be rummys but with 9 I don't see it as a big possibility hopefully someone who knows more can chime in

 

[dgh]

Sorry to hear you are having problems .maybe you are overstocked and there are some territory issues.

 

[tarpon]

Just keep an eye on them to see if you can see who it is. It could be the angels or other fish.my angels have nipped each others fins before when trying to establish dominance. How long have you had them?
And fishs fins can heal back quite fast in clean water

 

[absolutangel04]

As to who the culprit is, who knows? Honestly, the most likely suspect is the angels bickering or the gouramis. But, thats just a guess.
If you keep the water clean, it should heal up fine. Do you have a quarantine tank you could try isolating a fish in to figure out who is causing problems?

 

[Borderlesscott]

I would put money on the Angels, I've seen gourami,s nip at the side of other fish but never the fins.

 

[DragonFish71]

I would say the gouramis. Any experience I've had with them and fish with flowing fins was not good. I had to re-home mine.

 

[CherryBarb123]

It's a mystery

I have seen several fish chase them around, but never any signs of nipping fins. My angels are trouble makers and always seem to be doing to doing things they shouldn't Certain fish (Bleeding hearts!) get a big boisterous at food time, but they never seem to do any damage (or maybe they do!)

I don't want to have to rehome anything, but if I have to, I will

I have had the angelfish for around 6 weeks. They never seem to nip each other (At least I never see them nipping each other) and they appear to get on very well at the moment.

If I was to have to rehome something, would it be worth rehoming the angels, seeing as they are the only fish being nipped and as everything else is fine?

Thanks for the help