Angelfish domestic abuse

[Skyrmir]

I was wondering if anyone might be able to suggest a way to chill out one of my angels. The past few days the male has been getting SUPER aggressive towards the female.

They are a mated pair that has spawned nearly a dozen times already. In the past they've rough housed a bit, and the female started to get aggressive to the male after spawning. She caught the male eating eggs, and won't chance it happening again is my guess.

Of course to add to the mix, I moved at the beginning of this month. So the tank was drained, refilled and re-arranged a bit. Then 2 days after we moved in, the tank exploded. So they spent a week in my 30 gallon being WAY overcrowded. New tank, new substrate and another re-arrangement later... They spawned once, i took the eggs out to hatch myself (They're tank bred and clueless about raising fry) Now it looks as if the female is about ready to spawn again. But the male is busily beating the hell out of her. Torn fins, roughed up the scales all over her left side and he's not letting up.

To keep him from killing her I scooped the male into my floating egg box for a while until I could figure out what to do with them. They could see each other through the side easily and seemed to be calmed down. No flaring at each other or anything. So I let him loose, mainly because he's too big to stay in there. That lasted about 2 minutes and he clamped onto the females side fin like he was going to rip it off. So back in the box he went.

After lights out I let him loose again, and they seem to be ok. I'm just worried what's going to happen in the morning when the lights come back.

 

[triazole]

hmm, tough break. my male is smaller than the female, and gets beat up regularly after spawning. they also eat their eggs, and i just let them be, because i have no intention of raising the babies. but the furious attacks cease after the eggs have been eaten.
i have no constructive advice to offer at this point. but you might try adding an aggressive fish that the angels can gang up on to forget their domestic squabbles. i have a BN pleco, and a rainbow shark. the angels work as a team to fend those two off. but then again, that might be counterproductive, as the presence of the rainbow shark prevented my previous angelfish pair from spawning.

 

[Skyrmir]

I think I might have some kind of explanation. Looking at the female today I noticed her egg tube was extended and seemed to have a bad egg sticking out of it. I'm not sure if it's damage or maybe she's sick. My thinking though is that if she is sick, the male might attack her because of it.

Of course it could just be damage from the fighting, and there's no garuntee that's why he's attacking. I've got a tank seperator in there now keeping them apart so I don't have to keep the male boxed up. I added some melafix yesterday and her fins and scales seem to be healing up pretty quickly. I'm just worried about infection at this point for her. The tank seperator is going to have to stay in until she's healthy again, after that I'm hoping a tank re-arrangement with the lights out might do the trick to re-integrating them. My plants are going to hate me, but I'd rather lose a plant than a fish.

 

[trotty]

I cant offer any advice, but i will give praise. Good to see you take the time to watch your fish to figure out whats goin on! And ultimately fix the problem and not just throw medications in the tank. Kudos to you!

 

[Skyrmir]

Well no, I didn't just throw meds at them...but if I'd had the fishy version of valium I probably would have poured a bucket of it in there. I had to adjust my tank divider earlier today and the second I took it out it was like I cut the leash off a pit bull.

 

[BrianNY]

Fish will do what they do and you can't change their behavior. In the world of cichlids spawning and aggression often go hand in hand. Experienced angel keepers often have a safe tank ready. It is not uncommon for one to kill the other if it is ready to spawn and its mate is not.