Angelfish

[Kitekat87]

I currently have 2 juvenile angelfish in my 55 gallon tank, one platinum and one black. I bought them as very young/small fish but they were the same size. Unfortunately, since then the black one has become more dominant and bullies the platinum to the point it hasn't grown at all in the two months I've had them while the black has over doubled in size.

I have a 17 gallon tank that houses some tetras and I was thinking of putting the platinum in there for a while so he doesn't have to compete for food like he does in the community tank. That way I can grow him out before reintroducing him to the main tank.

Do you guys think this would work? Or does anyone have any other suggestions? I really like them both so ideally I don't want to get rid of either of them.

The pic shows the difference in size but please note the larger platinum Angel died after getting stuck in a decoration (I suspect the black one chased him In there)

 

[ZxC]

If the dominant one is harassing them that bad, I would remove the smaller one and grow it out in the 17 gal, I don't see anything wrong with that plan.

When you do go to move the smaller one back in with the black one, move some decor around so that they have to establish new territories.

 

[V227]

K
Might be a good idea to just add 2 or 3 more Angels into your 55 gal. If you go that route, buy one Angel significantly larger than the current dominant one, and one smaller than the current weaker Angel.
Cichlids often bully each other to death. If the subordinate Angel is to that point, sure, transfer it over to the reserve tank to heal up and grow a bit.
A solitary cichlid in a tank often becomes even more intolerant towards new introductions. Point being, upon reintroducing the healed Angel back into the 55 gal. Likely the same situation will arise again unless the Angel population is increased.
Cichlids develops a pecking order. As it sits right now A = dominate Angel, B = subordinate Angel. There is nothing between them to dilute A' s aggression towards B.

 

[Kitekat87]

Ok, that makes sense. I do have a severum in the 55 tho with various smaller fish. So would adding more angels make that overatocked?

There are 3 filters running on it so not really concerned about the bio load but more the space and water changes needed

 

[V227]

One of the benifets of keeping angels is that they dont require a lot of horizontal space like most fish. The depth and height of the tank are a little more important. So two or three new Angels should be fine, and probably will look great. Be sure to adjust your WC's accordingly.

 

[Kitekat87]

Great, thanks. Luckily my tank is fairly tall which us why I got angels in the first place