I'm a fool - or how to decimate your angel fish population

[TomK2]

Well, you might have seen me comment on it before, but here it is again. I had four nice, happy juvenile black angels in a community tank and everything was fine. then one day I see these beautiful pearl white angels at the LFS. Never having seen these strain before, I just have to buy four of them to complement my black angels. One of the new pearl white angels turns out to be aggressive. Before I figure things out, it has harrassed two white angels to death (literally!), and one is near death. I put the dying white angel in a QT and nurse it back to health over one week. In the meantime, everything seems ok in the display tank, and then in one day the agressive white angel kills the smallest black angel, and has another one looking bad. The agressive white angel fish swaps places in the QT with the revived white angel to get it away from fish, the harrased black angel feeds for one day and now is just about dead.

I now have two black angels, one white angel, and a terrorist white angel locked up in a QT that god knows what I can do with. It is in the QT now fighting with its own reflection.

so, just because I HAD TO HAVE those pretty white angels, two whites are dead, one black is dead, and one is dying tonight. About $40 in livestock gone. I am such an idiot for adding new angels. Now I fear that if I should try to replenish my angel stock the whole thing will repeat. sigh.

 

[Guest]

im sorry

stupid eveil angel!

i love black angels

mine died 2 days ago from SBD

 

[Jchillin]

Sorry to hear about this misfortune Tom. I really thought that you scored big time with them.

I remember having to start over and it had to be all the same age, size, specie, etc.

 

[TomK2]

Jchillin - well, they were the most beautiful angels I had ever seen. I have to ponder what to do with the agressive one. If I send him back to the LFS, won't it just destroy some other unsuspecting persons tank? Kind of like sending a known vicious dog to the shelter to be adopted by some other poor, unknowing person?

 

[Guest]

well i would have them put him in his own tank and have a lable saying

WARNING- Agressive Angel Choose Wisely

 

[QTOFFER]

I know exactly what you're going through, Tom. I once had a peaceful SA cichlid tank going (blue acaras and a severum), until I decided to add a firemouth. He hid in his cave, and only came out to terrorize his tankmates. I'm finally going to rid myself of this psychopath at the next fish club auction. I wouldn't worry about passing on your problem angel to someone else, because it just may be the least aggressive fish in it's next owner's tank.

Pearl white and black angels would have looked awesome together. I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. It's strange too, usually it's the newcomers that get picked on.

 

[Jchillin]

I'm finally going to rid myself of this psychopath at the next fish club auction.

I won't even mention this to anyone QTOFFER

I agree with QTOFER Tom, the chances of that are very slim.

 

[TomK2]

well, I have seen a replacement for him at the lfs, but it is even bigger! I am thinking of doing a real head job on it in the QT. Add plants, move them around, take them away, put em back, rearrange. The idea would be to totally bewilder the fish over a few weeks, then put him back in the display tank. The other fish will have recovered and settled in. Maybe they could then keep it in check.

What do you think? Any chance it would work? or will I just make it REALLY MEAN by doing this?

 

[Jchillin]

My experience doesn't go as far as to re-condition fish behaviors. I do know that changing their environment will cause a change and I would hope that it would be positive in this regard. He just needs to calm down right?

Since I already know you have the patience of Job (how many of us are willing to slowly cycle a 10gal tank via fishless just to know what the exact time and numbers really are?), I can envision a day when your pearl white is released from the "slammer" and is totally rehabilitated!

 

[BASSNMAN]

Sorry about the loss of your angels. You just never know how fish will act, but angels are chiclids. I hope the rehab works. I had a large tiger barb in my community tank that was a problem so I put him in with my 4 inch oscar for 2 days. He was a different fish when I put him back in the community.

 

[cJw]

That sounds like a good plan, Tom; I'm curious what the results will be. After that much 'bewildrement', I'd think it would be a completely new situation he'd have to adapt to; you could only hope that he'd be nicer this time. :O

 

[severum mama]

Sorry for your loss Tom. I hope your angel is rehabilitated. 8O

 

[TomK2]

Here's the mugshot of Prisoner 001
Convicted 3/23/2005
Parole hearing scheduled for 4/07/2005

 

[fish lover]

I have 3 Angel fish, black, white which looks silver and a orange white one, I guess you can say, I have read in the past that if they get that agressive check your water, test it and make sure you not high where you should be, mine are some what agressive to each other, but they aren't doing any damage, there just letting each other know this is my space, because they are known to be territorial. Also from what I read, if you find them to be aggressive they say add up to 6 of them also depending on the size of your tank, and the aggressive one can't fight off 5. Well I hope this will be helpful in the future.

Dolphin

 

[Guest]

well its a boy!

man he seems so docile yet you know he has that evil inside him


how are your others?

 

[TomK2]

The body count is rather high, 3 black angels and two white angels. The accused was definitely seen harassing three of the deceased, as well as the assault victim. I have two white ones left and one black one. The non agressive white angel is a model citizen, and bothers no one so far.

 

[kansaschick08]

pretty mug shot...parrol hearing..you crack me up.

 

[cJw]

Yeh; nice post, Tom. You helped my Monday morning. : grin :

You could almost get another QT tank and leave him in there; he's (he ?) a gorgeous angel.

 

[TomK2]

update: I just realized that I will be out of town for the angel's parol hearing So I moved the date up to today. After nearly two weeks of solitary confinement, and "bewilderment psychotherapy", I reintroduced the agressive angel into the display tank. Its been about three hours. The two white angels seem to be going about their business, largely ignoring each other. They do approach each other, and the agressive one seems to flare and try and provoke the other. But the other one just ignores it and swims on by. Just recently, I saw the timid angel respond to the provocation by taking a peck at the agressive one.

It would seem that the timid angel, after being nursed back to health, and having the display tank to itself to get established and confident, is able to hold its ground. The agressive one, feeling like the newb, doesn't yet have the confidence to terrorize anyone.

Time will tell. Sadly, the black angels are all dead. Some died with no harassment, leading me to beleive there was another factor that was introduced with the white angels.

 

[TomK2]

Update: Well, all is going well. After two weeks in the QT, the agressive angel has calmed down. He still bullied the other a tiny bit, but after another two weeks together in the display tank they have come to terms. I dare not introduce any more. I wouldn't want to upset a balance that was difficult to achieve.

But the isolation / bewilderment regimine seems to have worked!