Angel fish tank builds and compatibility

[wishbone]

Greetings, I'm new to the site and have spent countless hours trolling before I decided to post. The search function is a wonderful thing. =) I have some populations I'm considering and I wanted to elicit some comments. I've already read all the compatibility charts, but what I'm looking for is more personal experience. I'm just about done with the cycling process (yes I know there's fish in the picture, fishless cycling is new to me and will be something I will DEFINITELY try next time).

My goal is to create a angelfish themed tank with a natural looking habitat.

I have a 110g tall tank

I have two pieces of large driftwood that I'm tanning right now that will go in the big open area in the center when they are ready.

I'd also like to get some very hardy plants to add more natural look to the tank. The plastic ones you see are just temporary for the fish that are in there now. I'm considering Anacharis, java moss, and maybe some type of hardy sword? I don't want a "planted tank", I just want some natural plants added to my FISH tank.

As I mentioned, I'm interested in going with angels. However, I don't want just an angel tank. I would prefer something more community orientated. Maybe a build like:

angelfish (marble, koi, ?)
gouramis (dwarf, pearl or?)
discus
swordtails or maybe some long finned tetras of some sort

Besides looking for general comments, my questions are:

What is the best stocking order? Some of the fish are territorial, should they go in last?
What species/coloring of these categories do you suggest? (I like color)
I don't know much about discus. I'm attracted to the color, but maybe a discus expert can pipe up and let me know if they are a bad idea in this arrangement.
What number/groupings of fish would be the best for this tank?
What kinds of plants (with minimalist in mind) would be good for this tank?

TIA for any comments/suggestions.

 

[jonnyb1425]

I feel bad being a newbie and giving you your first advice, but I think it is worth hearing. As one of my first fish I had a koi angel in a 25gal. with a couple other peaceful community fish. To make a long story, due to the fact that the fish was my fiance's favorite I couldn't give it back to the pet store (I know, I am a bit of a softy). Unfortunately, this particular fish enjoyed terrorizing all of my other fish and I had to remove my frogs from his mouth numerous times (the two I had didn't last very long). So instead of getting rid of it, on my fiance's request we spent almost $100 on a full new startup of a new 10 gal. tank to deal with our little agressive angel. Now I have read many a post that spoke of peaceful angels in a community setting, but mine was definitely socially defunct. By the way, I have read advice that suggests 10 gal. of space for each angel. Good luck!

 

[wishbone]

I feel bad being a newbie and giving you your first advice, but I think it is worth hearing. As one of my first fish I had a koi angel in a 25gal. with a couple other peaceful community fish. To make a long story, due to the fact that the fish was my fiance's favorite I couldn't give it back to the pet store (I know, I am a bit of a softy). Unfortunately, this particular fish enjoyed terrorizing all of my other fish and I had to remove my frogs from his mouth numerous times (the two I had didn't last very long). So instead of getting rid of it, on my fiance's request we spent almost $100 on a full new startup of a new 10 gal. tank to deal with our little agressive angel. Now I have read many a post that spoke of peaceful angels in a community setting, but mine was definitely socially defunct. By the way, I have read advice that suggests 10 gal. of space for each angel. Good luck!

You have experience regardless of how long you've been doing it and that's exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks for sharing your story!

Angel aggressiveness seems almost random. Except for tha mated pairs during bredding. Everyone knows there is a lot of agression there. Are there particular "breeds" of angels that peopel find to be more agressive than others?

 

[poikilotherm]

With a tank that size you could probably put six or eight angels in there, with some bottom feeders and something else (many choices) along the lines of a small schooling fish (but not small enough to get eaten!).

I would put all the angels in at once, but watch them and trade in any that are particularly obnoxious. I don't know of any specific aggression differences between breeds, just look for individuals that are attractive and relatively peaceful.

WRT plants, your angels would be happiest with swords, however swords generally require pretty strong light, and in a tank this tall, they may not thrive. Check over on the planted tank forum for specifics here. I could be wrong.

I'll post more if I think of anything. Good luck, I'm sure it'll be beautiful.

 

[TomK2]

I added my angels last. I went with platies, cory cats, danios, and a pleco. I might still add some tetras, they will be fast and numerous enough to avoid being targets. Buy the angels small and grow them out. I recently added four angels larger than the originial four. One turned out to be aggressive, but only to the same colored buddies he came home with. I put him in a QT for a weekend to teach him some manners, and this helped. Unfortunately, two of his buddies died, and one is in the hospital tank for poor feeding. When it goes back into the main tank I shall see.

 

[Blucat]

My two swords took 1 week of tank blackout for the algae. I only have 2 x 20w lights.

 

[SerLunchbox]

Well, here is the thing. In the wild, Angels are naturally agressive fish ... regardless what others will tell you. They especially get more agressive, as forementioned, when breeding. See, angels CAN go with fish that are "community oriented" but i find IME that it is really a fine line to walk. I have heard of people keeping guppies with angels, and i have heard of people having their guppies killed off by the angels. It really is all about temperment and territory. If you have a nice area for the angel to call their own (please put slate in your tank at about a 35 - 40 degree angle ... this will almost always be the angels territory). The best advice i can give is trial and error. If you are not sure, do research. if by all means you see that it is fine, then try it out. The worst that will happen is that the fish is killed (yes it is a bad thing but it does happen more ofthen then what people like to admit too). As i said, it is up to the temperment and territory of the fish.
Good luck

 

[BrianNY]

First, welcome to AA wishbone. I think you're going about this the right way.

A nice tall tank like yours can have some plants that get tall. I'd suggest crypts and giant val. They aren't very demanding and will grow in a low light aquarium.

Angels are cichlids. They are territoreal and when full grown can and do become aggressive towards each other. However, IME I've found that the more angels in a tank, the less aggression . I like poikilotherms suggestion of buying young fish and adding them at the same time. In this way they will be more tolerant of each other.

When stocking your tank it's best to go in order of lesser aggression. I'd add the catfish and algae eaters first, followed by the schooling fish. Some suggestions for nice easy to keep, and colorful fish that go well with angels are; rummy nose tetras, pristella tetras, black neons and harlequin rasboras.

As far as swordtails go, this is doable but they have different water requirements and I've never cared for the mix. Gouramis can be even more aggressive than angels and even the most peaceful of them tend to find the angels fins quite appetizing. Discus require alot of work and knowledge. They're a species best left to the more experienced as their requirements can be quite demanding.

HTH

 

[wishbone]

excellent, thank you all for your comments and suggestions!

 

[ChileRelleno]

Everyone else gave you good info to go with, goodluck

Greetings, I'm new to the site and have spent countless hours trolling before I decided to post.

No one seemed to catch this though
FYI, its called Lurking not trolling, lurking is good, trolling is very bad... LOL!

 

[DARK Jak]

looks like nobodys said it yet so i will
WELCOME to AA hope you chose to stay.

 

[Guest]

Welcome to AA!

well personally i think that Discus and Angels CAN! go together, some people can get it to work

just remember Angels still ARE CICHLIDS and are Semi-Agressive

i dont think that discus are cichlids, im not sure but thats just me

but for ,me these are some hardy plants i reccomend that i have with me and i only have a stock light and
its 20w also i have a 29 gal

Java Fern
Cobumba(sp?)
Giant Grass Plant

and some great tank mates for my angel that i have

Solid Black Mollies
Lyretail Mollies
Bronze Cory Cats

but this is my tank and i dont think that is will work for your tank

hope all goes well and HTH

 

[DARK Jak]

just so you know discus are cichlids.
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/discus.xml
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/angelfish.xml

 

[Guest]

Discus
Temperament: Peaceful

Angelfish
Temperament: Semi-Agressive

just so you know

 

[DARK Jak]

you dont have to get PO'd i thought you didnt know they were cichlids.

 

[Guest]

no no no im not PO'd im just letting him know that angels can be agressive when they want to

 

[DARK Jak]

just so you know

it seemed you were mocking me its allright though

 

[Guest]

sorry


wait we are off topic of the thread

lets have other people share their experiences

 

[cJw]

I can only speak from memory, so my number may be a bit off, but 10 years ago (gasp) when I lived @ home, my parents had two 55g tanks, and one was angels/gourami, and I don't remember too much trouble between the two.

My dad had 3 angels, and somewhere around 5 or 6 gourami (three blue/3 spots and three of some other type) and I do remember a little nipping, but that was the worst it ever got.

The thing to worry about - or so I've read and heard from lfs advice - is to watch out for paired angels spawning, as that's when the 'gloves really come off'. So, perhaps, aim for 3 or 4 angels of the same sex? With that much room, I'd think you'd be safe.

For gourami, it's recommended that you have one or two males with 2 or 3 times as many femals. You could go for 2 males and 4-6 females and shouldn't have a problem - the key is to have enough to spread the agression. Again, with that much space, they shouldn't pay too much attention to the angels, and I'd think the angels could hold their own should the gourami get pushy.

Now, if I could only fit that much fish into my 30 long, I'd be happy. out:

 

[wishbone]

Well who said I had good intentions! However, I suppose you are right, lurking would be more appropriate. I'd give you kudos as the forum nazi, if there was such an award.

Thank you all for the warm welcome and additional shared experiences. Seems like there are some choices.

So maybe I should consider more aggressive fish with the angels than I've considered so far? Or does keeping with semi-aggressive a bad thing where angels are concerned?