Angels & Plants?

[Jman17H]

Are angels compatable with a heavily planted tank? Will they eat, dig-up or destroy my plants? Since they are technically cichlids, I am a bit cautious on the thought right now?

I am thinking of trading a tank for a few 4-5" angels and they would reside in my 150-breeder heavily planted tank with basically a bunch of loaches and giant danios (and I do not need comments on how the loaches will destroy plants for they do fine).

 

[JustOneMore20]

My Angel doesn't bother my plants at all and my tank is pretty heavily planted. The only thing i'd worry about in your tank is the Giant Danios. I have never kept kept them, but assume they are as hyper as regular danios. Angels are slow, laid back (usually) fish, and I think they would get stressed by the Danios activity. In a tank that large though, there should be enough room for the Angels to have their own space.

 

[itafx]

Giant Danios are at least as hyper as Zebra Danios. But I have a bunch in a 72 with a couple angels and they get along fine together.

 

[Jman17H]

ok, so i should be alright with the angels, plants, loaches and giant danios (a few monsters at 4-6").

and that leads to:

I was assuming that I may want to think about removing my 4 very large & fat gold barbs and a gold gouramis for bioload and fin nipping issues?

I am also assuming that I need to abandon the idea of at some point adding a school of rummynose since the angels may determine them to be lunch?

I had also been thinking of getting a gaggle or so of oto's so would the angel's eat them being as they are fairly small?

 

[Zezmo]

I am also assuming that I need to abandon the idea of at some point adding a school of rummynose since the angels may determine them to be lunch?

If you start with baby angels, and full sized tetras (Rummy, Neon, etc). Then the Angels do not learn to see the Tetras as food. That said, I recently removed my 5 Angels from my heavily planted tank. It had schools of Neons, Rummynose, Galaxy Rasboras (now called Celestial Pearl Danio), Bloodfin's, and Penguin Tetras. There were never any aggresion issues. However, now with the Angels gone, the tetras have come out more into the open, and have taken on a more relaxed posture in the tank.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I keep my 5 inch Angelfish with 7 Rummynose tetras. I have even added a couple since the angel has been in the tank (small ones) and they were not eaten.

 

[JDogg]

i keep both rummy-nose and cardinal tetra with my angels (in a well planted tank) everyone does fine

 

[crazyred]

Rummy's are a tad on the large side even for adult angels. I have some in with my full grown breeding pair with no problems. They don't bother the plants either.

 

[Rupret]

I have a planted tank with angels and have absolutely no problems with angels and plants. I also have had angels with zebra danios with no problems and currently have red serpae tetras with no problems either. My clown loaches have not been a problem with the plants either, but some of the other burrowing loaches may be problematic. Another good choice for planted tanks and angels are rainbow fish, which have been extremely compatible in my tank. Yes, angels are part of the cichlid family, but they are pretty tame and non-agressive, although, from my extperience, the other fish definatley give them their space. The one type of fish that I have found to be problematic with angels are tiger barbs (and probably other barbs as well), due to the tiger barbs nip at the angels fins and really aggrevate the angels.

 

[crazyred]

On another note of caution with angel aggressiveness......I had three in my tank and when the dominant male paired up with the lone female they picked on the outcast male pretty bad. They weren't beating the crap out of him exactly, but it was pretty stressful looking for him, so I gave him to a friend for her 30 gallon tank.

Angels are tough to sex until they start breeding, so just get a few and be prepared to rehouse the loners because they will be harrassed by the mating pair.

 

[fish 'n' fries]

Just to second/third? what's been said. I also have danios and an angel. No problems there. The angel doesn't seem even slightly upset by them...although I do have enough that their teasing is keep in the group (I have 11).

However, I used to have two angels and the one died...I think due to stress from the remaining one. (Never got physically injured so I didn't take him out--wish I had now...) So just be aware of that issue with angels.

No problem with the angel and plants--though I do hold him responsible for the nerite snails' demise!

 

[newfound77951]

The barbs might also grub around in the gravel enough to disturb the plants. When i decided to go planted, I had to give away my 4 beautiful 4" clown barbs because they would dig up anything I planted as they hunted for food in the substrate. Not sure if gold barbs would do that, it might depend on how big they are, my tiger barbs don't bother the plants.

 

[itafx]

I had also been thinking of getting a gaggle or so of oto's so would the angel's eat them being as they are fairly small?

I put 4 small ottos in with a large angel. The angel takes no interest in them, and they have grown fat eating algae to their heart's content.