bullying angelfish

[Rey]

I have a problem, well I recently put in two mature silver angelfish into my 125 gallon tank they started breeding right away but I then added two albino young angelfish. One is very small and the other grew almost to a half dollar size while the other stayed about a quarter size and the two silver angelfish were bullying the younger albinos so I put the silver angelfish in a 40 gallon where they are now the only angelfish again. But I would like to add them back to the 125 gallon or do you think the same thing will happen again? should I get more angelfish so there will be less fighting? Are the albinos much weaker of a angelfish should I keep them isolated from the other two big silver angelfish?

 

[maxima423]

they are aggressive because they are breeding, just defending their territory, my suggestion is to put the breeding angelfish into a 55g and let your younger ones enjoy the 120g since they are not breeding

 

[rich311k]

As long as they are a breeding pair they will not appreciate the company of other angels. Let them have their own tank.

 

[mudraker]

Agreed.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

In my opinion Angels are territorial all the time. When breeding, however, they are very aggressive in defending more than usual.

Maybe this is just the Angels I have had, but I certainly will never consider them good tankmates for anything else (including other Angels) because of my experiences.

 

[mudraker]

People forget Angels are cichlids. Some are more aggresive than others, but they are bullys at best and downright dangerous to mellower fish.

 

[WendiDell]

I know that Angelfish are Cichlids and aggressive especially while breeding. I have another tank with Mbunas.
But my Angels are still pretty small. One is about the size of a quarter, another one is about the size of a 50 cent piece, one is about 3 inches and the bully is only a bit bigger than a silver dollar and none are breeding.
I don't know which if any are male or female, yet. But one Angelfish is a terror. He's already killed one Angelfish and harassed another one (the biggest) so bad that it broke out with ick. So I put the bully in a tank by himself and treated the main tank for ick which cleared up in a miraculous 2 days and the bully never got ick at all.
What do I do about the bully? It tries to kill everyone else in the tank. This is my first Angel tank and I want them to be as compatible with each other as possible. Or I'll end up with sick or dead fish on a regular basis. Is there some way to decrease the aggression or should I return the bully to the FS and try a new one?

 

[ejaramillo01]

I know that Angelfish are Cichlids and aggressive especially while breeding. I have another tank with Mbunas.
But my Angels are still pretty small. One is about the size of a quarter, another one is about the size of a 50 cent piece, one is about 3 inches and the bully is only a bit bigger than a silver dollar and none are breeding.
I don't know which if any are male or female, yet. But one Angelfish is a terror. He's already killed one Angelfish and harassed another one (the biggest) so bad that it broke out with ick. So I put the bully in a tank by himself and treated the main tank for ick which cleared up in a miraculous 2 days and the bully never got ick at all.
What do I do about the bully? It tries to kill everyone else in the tank. This is my first Angel tank and I want them to be as compatible with each other as possible. Or I'll end up with sick or dead fish on a regular basis. Is there some way to decrease the aggression or should I return the bully to the FS and try a new one?

That is my recommendation (Returned to the lfs), looks like this one is really temperamental and will be hard to keep him with the others.

 

[WendiDell]

That is my recommendation (Returned to the lfs), looks like this one is really temperamental and will be hard to keep him with the others.

That's what I thought. I guess I just needed to hear from someone else that he would always be trouble.
Fortunately the FS where I buy all my fish is really good about taking their fish back when it doesn't work out.

 

[ejaramillo01]

That's what I thought. I guess I just needed to hear from someone else that he would always be trouble.
Fortunately the FS where I buy all my fish is really good about taking their fish back when it doesn't work out.

Same here, I experienced the same with a beautiful flame gourami, I tried everything, hiding spots, more decorations, changing tank mates, but after three fish killed by the gourami, I realized that was the time to returned to the store, which I did against my will.

 

[WendiDell]

Same here, I experienced the same with a beautiful flame gourami, I tried everything, hiding spots, more decorations, changing tank mates, but after three fish killed by the gourami, I realized that was the time to returned to the store, which I did against my will.

I know, I hate to give up and admitting I can't fix something. Plus, even though these fish are reeking havoc you still care for them.

 

[Rey]

thanks for all the help. I put the mating pair in a 40 gallon breeder tank with glass cats, now I'm worried about the glass cats
I'll propably move the glass cats to the 125 since it has more plants and wood for hiding spaces. only thing is there is tetras in the 40 gallon that are exhibiting neon tetra disease (which is contagious to angelfish)but I seperated the sickly ones to a hospital tank before I moved angels in there.

 

[mudraker]

so bad that it broke out with ick. So I put the bully in a tank by himself and treated the main tank for ick which cleared up in a miraculous 2 days and the bully never got ick at all.

Ich is not caused by stress like many believe. It is a parasite that will infect all the fish, whether they show symtoms or not. This is because the parasite can hide in the gills where you can't see it.

How did you treat the tank for ich and for how long?

It usually takes much longer to rid the parasite from the tank than it says on many of the so-called ich remedies.