Squabbling angelfish - add more?

[Delapool]

Hi,

I have a fairly well stocked 4ft (150 gallon) tank with 5 angel fish (plus other community fish).

Bought all at same time but two are ~3 inches, two are a bit smaller and one black one is a runt that never seems to grow and many months later can still fit in the gravel vac tube.

The largest one is getting a little bit of a bully. Mainly at meal times I think but starting to see some scale damage on the 3 others. The fifth one hangs with the black mollies (weird little thing), so no hassles with it.

I thought 5 would be a good number for spreading aggression around & 4ft should give a good distance for any pairing but given that one is a runt, I'm wondering if I should pick up a couple more? Tank stocking wise I could get I'd say another 2 or 3. Thoughts?

 

[treemanone2003]

Generally 5 is a good number to start with for that size tank. IMO, it's behavior sounds as if it wants to be "the" dominator. Before adding anymore, I would suggest to remove him to a spare 20g for a week and then reintroduce. It may change his behavior. Another thought would be he and the others are also males and there is one female he's trying to impress.


Sent from my iPhone that doesn't like me. Or you !!

 

[hennaartist]

I've had to rehome, much to my dismay, one of my angels because as he grew larger and reached sexual maturity he began bullying the other Angels. My tank was smaller though (55 gallon), so I wish you luck and hope they can work it out.

 

[Andy Sager]

Is more better? It really depends on why the fighting. If the only time you really see aggression is at feeding time, you might want to feed your fish at multiple locations at the same time ( or as close to simultaneously as possible). By doing this, your more aggressive fish won;t have to share his food with the others while the other fish aren't spooked away from feeding.
If you see aggression at other times as well, remember, Angelfish live in a hierarchy society so there is always a leader and subordinant followers. I've watched tanks with more than 10 Angels together nip each other down the line. The leader picked on #2, #2 picked on #3, #3 picked on #4 and so on down the line. I actually used this behavior to pick out the fish from this tank that I wanted . If you see this, you just need to try to add more decor to break up the line of sight and add more hiding places for the fish. If you see one fish attacking all the other Angelfish, you can try the "time out" removal and replacement but if that doesn't work, chances are you will need to remove either the dominant fish or the other fish being attacked. Adding more fish will not solve that problem.

Hope this helps.

 

[Delapool]

Thanks for replies. It does seem limited to mainly feeding time - particularly if they can see me. I say mainly as it looks like there are other times as well. Will watch tank more closely on weekend from a distance.

It's basically one dominating the rest. Kind of like 'look at me, I'm top, scare that fish away, look at me, chase that one, aren't I grand'. Well guessing here...

I was thinking more may help spread the aggression load but sounds like just more targets? The 'dominating' is pretty quick at feeding time. It doesn't seem truly aggressive, just trying to chase off if that makes sense.

Plants are growing (despite my efforts) but needs a few more months. Would more driftwood decor help? I can also do a time out pen or ask the committee for another tank. Thoughts?

 

[44Paps44]

Tall decor to break up the line of sight of the angels will help and may also help divide the tank into respective terrorities. Is your intent to keep all 5 or are you looking to end up with a breeding pair or two?

 

[Andy Sager]

Thanks for replies. It does seem limited to mainly feeding time - particularly if they can see me. I say mainly as it looks like there are other times as well. Will watch tank more closely on weekend from a distance.

It's basically one dominating the rest. Kind of like 'look at me, I'm top, scare that fish away, look at me, chase that one, aren't I grand'. Well guessing here...

I was thinking more may help spread the aggression load but sounds like just more targets? The 'dominating' is pretty quick at feeding time. It doesn't seem truly aggressive, just trying to chase off if that makes sense.

Plants are growing (despite my efforts) but needs a few more months. Would more driftwood decor help? I can also do a time out pen or ask the committee for another tank. Thoughts?

It sounds like it's a "not enough food at feeding time" issue so he wants to make sure he gets all he can so I would definitely feed at both ends of the tank to spread the fish out to get fed.

 

[Delapool]

It sounds like it's a "not enough food at feeding time" issue so he wants to make sure he gets all he can so I would definitely feed at both ends of the tank to spread the fish out to get fed.

Ok thanks, will do.

It's been a little rough here with storms. Had something like 5 blackouts in 3 days which is mucking up my tank routine well and truly.

 

[Delapool]

Tall decor to break up the line of sight of the angels will help and may also help divide the tank into respective terrorities. Is your intent to keep all 5 or are you looking to end up with a breeding pair or two?

It was to keep all 5 if I could? Returning to lfs is pretty rare here.

I'll see what I can find on decor. The bottom of the tank is stuffed with driftwood, fake plane, caves and plants (co2 making a difference) but the top foot to foot and a half is pretty clean unfortunately. Hoping the plants can get more height.

The small black one is a write-off I think for growing (some of the mollies are bigger) so it's mainly a pack of 4. They get on pretty well with other fish so far.... They suspiciously hang around the mollies sometimes like they are eyeing them off, the rosy barbs are too quick, catfish too big and the yo yo loaches just too annoying.