Aggressive Angel

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Ladybug5399

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Dec 20, 2012
Messages
83
Location
Youngstown, Ohio
Recently one of my angels has become the tank bully. It started with terrorizing then eating 2 otos. Then it moved on to a nerite snail. Last night it went after and killed a 2.5 inch common pleco! It's the most beautiful fish in my tank but making me crazy!

3 angel fish
2 rainbows
2 black kuhlis
2 dwarf gourami
2 Molly
1 Molly/guppy mix
Blue mystery snail
Rubber lip pleco

Tank is a 46g bow front.
 
Not that I can tell. I don't know the sex of them.... Hubby laughs when I look at pic and compare cuz I just can't tell :) The 3 of them swim separate. Never showing signs of pairing or even being buds. We bought them at the same time and they were all the same size. The bully is noticeably larger than the other 2
 
This guy has been taking a beating. Both he and the white angel have always had red looking areas by gills (came that way) but this is recent. At first I worried that something happened and there was an ammonia issue but it tested 0.

image-165974119.jpg
 
This often happens when angels mature. One thing you can try is remove the bully from the tank and completely rearrange the tank. Make sure to have some tall plants/DW/decorations to break the line of sight up in the tank. Then once done re-add the angel. Often this confuses the angel making it think it's in a new tank where it has no territory. If this doesn't work you may have to consider rehoming it.
 
I once had that problem but I changed everything out I got sand substrate, large driftwood and some plants and now no one bugs anyone it's nice to have a peaceful tank haha
 
Not that I can tell. I don't know the sex of them.... Hubby laughs when I look at pic and compare cuz I just can't tell :) The 3 of them swim separate. Never showing signs of pairing or even being buds. We bought them at the same time and they were all the same size. The bully is noticeably larger than the other 2

I have 2 black marble angels too, but I think that they're both females based on what I've found on Google regarding determining the gender. I was wondering how small they were when you got them? I was hoping since mine were both juveniles when I put them in my community tank, that they won't get aggressive as they mature.
 
All angels have different personalities as young ones and old. Usually 2 males or 2 females will be ok together. Angels have a habit of showing who is the dominate one. every now and then this can result in death of other angels or other fish. when they get to pairing and breeding age it seams to increase. i have 8 beautiful females and 1 male in a 55 and all is peaceful. as stated by river cat i rearrange the tank about every 2 mts. I for one have never had a mean angel yet, knock on wood. if angels are happy there's not usually a problem . so perimeters and water temp are a big thing to me . also i believe in having lots of tall plants to keep them feeling secure. I recommend cork screw vales. You will notice i use the word USUALLY a lot . nothing is for sure with angels. i hope this is of some help .
 
All angels have different personalities as young ones and old. Usually 2 males or 2 females will be ok together. Angels have a habit of showing who is the dominate one. every now and then this can result in death of other angels or other fish. when they get to pairing and breeding age it seams to increase. i have 8 beautiful females and 1 male in a 55 and all is peaceful. as stated by river cat i rearrange the tank about every 2 mts. I for one have never had a mean angel yet, knock on wood. if angels are happy there's not usually a problem . so perimeters and water temp are a big thing to me . also i believe in having lots of tall plants to keep them feeling secure. I recommend cork screw vales. You will notice i use the word USUALLY a lot . nothing is for sure with angels. i hope this is of some help .

Bob raises angels here in CO so I've asked him a lot of questions about angels on this board, and he's helped me a lot. I love them and wanted more, but I only have a 36 gal. so I'm settling for my 2. I have a planted tank with tall plants so hopefully I won't have any problems.
 
I have 2 black marble angels too, but I think that they're both females based on what I've found on Google regarding determining the gender. I was wondering how small they were when you got them? I was hoping since mine were both juveniles when I put them in my community tank, that they won't get aggressive as they mature.

They were about the size of a quarter when we got them. They were the last 3 in the tank.... Huddled in a plant hiding... I didn't want to split them so we bought all 3. I've had them about 6 months or so.
 
You can try adding an angel.
When there's an even amount of them, they tend to not have as much fighting.
Or you can downgrade and remove the terrorizing angel
Or swap it out.

Otherwise I'd go with the aquascaping plan.
 
They were about the size of a quarter when we got them. They were the last 3 in the tank.... Huddled in a plant hiding... I didn't want to split them so we bought all 3. I've had them about 6 months or so.

Mine were a little smaller than that, but it sounds like the general consensus is to change things around in the tank and hope for the best. My BF has an African Cichlid tank and he's always moving things around in his tank so that they don't get territorial and aggressive.

Good luck! (y)
 
Back
Top Bottom