To Add Angelfish, Or Not To Add Angelfish, That Is The Question!

[Lt.]

The tank is a 45 long, and current stock is:
7 Rummy nose Tetra
2 dozen or so ghost shrimp
2 mystery snail
3 zebra and 1 leopard danio
2 von Rio Tetra
3 bronze and 1 peppered Cory

If I get angelfish I'm gonna get rid of the danios and possibly the von rios. I'd like to get something else too but I don't know what. Suggestions?I've read that angels are fairly easy (but not a real beginner fish) to care for, and I LOVE the way that they look. Also, is my tank suitable, (see picture below) environmentaly wise?

 

[KBCoggin]

Angels are Chiclids, and their natural snack food is tetras... I would FEAR for the lives of your Rummies and other small fish if you put them in there. However your tank is plenty large enough for 2-4 Angels. They aren't very hard to keep at all. Pretty fish but not very active. If they pair off (virtually impossible to sex them unless you witness them spawning) they will get very aggressive towards other fish, Angels or not. I had an Angel tank and LOVED it, but I had two sets of mated pairs and got tired of raising fry so I sold them and now have a community tank.

About the environment, they don't need much, really up to your taste. They generally occupy the mid-top range of water, so you can throw some bottom dwellers in there to complete the tank! My dad has 75 nickel size Juv Angels (that I breed) and 8 Panda Cory's in his tank. He will weed out the Angles as they get bigger until hes got 6-8 in his 80g.

 

[Rivercats]

I have a 220g heavily planted tank with 12 adult breeding angels tons of ghost shrimp and alot of small fish (Rummynose and Cardinal tetras, LF WCMM, Threadfin Rainbowfish, Rachovii killifish males) and do not have issues from pairs breeding or with snacking on small fish. Now they will eat a ghost shrimp if they venture out too far in the open. You tank size is fine for angels but you really need to add more plants, especially large ones. A couple amazon swords would be great. If you have fake plants look into getting 2 or 3 big, tall silk plants and arrange them so they break the line of sight from one end of the tank to the other. Then if you rehome the tetras and danios you could add a Pearl, Dwarf, or Honey Gourami. I'd also up the school of Rummynose to at least 12 as they do great in larger schools. I have 25 in my school and watching them schooling is pretty awesome.

 

[Fishy Smell]

I think you should get away with an Angelfish, although i would buy it small and let it grow with the other fish. This method has been far more successful for me than buying a decent sized one in the first place. It is still a bit of a risk, but if you want one badly enough, if you have problems you could swap and change later with it's tankmates. Personally, i've found Congo's to be brilliant tank mates (despite originating in different continents), as well as good sized hatchets and corys. Platies also work well if you want to add some colour. Other peaceful cichlids like Bolivian Rams and Keyholes work well too.

And ones to avoid would be most barbs, and nippy cichlids like Kribs. They'll tear the fins to shreds.

 

[Lt.]

I plan to up the rummy count to 10-12 and the danios to like 7 or 8. Also, I am waiting to make a bit of money to buy more, larger plants, but also that pic is a bit old, I've added q few larger plants since than, but I bet I could still ad more, a lot more.

 

[bud29]

Angels are Chiclids, and their natural snack food is tetras... I would FEAR for the lives of your Rummies and other small fish if you put them in there. However your tank is plenty large enough for 2-4 Angels. They aren't very hard to keep at all. Pretty fish but not very active. If they pair off (virtually impossible to sex them unless you witness them spawning) they will get very aggressive towards other fish, Angels or not. I had an Angel tank and LOVED it, but I had two sets of mated pairs and got tired of raising fry so I sold them and now have a community tank.

About the environment, they don't need much, really up to your taste. They generally occupy the mid-top range of water, so you can throw some bottom dwellers in there to complete the tank! My dad has 75 nickel size Juv Angels (that I breed) and 8 Panda Cory's in his tank. He will weed out the Angles as they get bigger until hes got 6-8 in his 80g.

While angelfish are in fact cichlids, larger tetras like rummies would be fine. And, just because a fish is a cichlid doesn't mean its natural prey is tetras, or that it will eat them. Take into consideration Neolaprologus multifasciatus, which is in fact a cichlid. It only grows to abot 1.5", smaller than the majority of larger tetras. It also originates from lake Tanganyika, which as I'm sure you know is not the native area of tetras. My point is these generalizations about cichlids are not always true.

I think you could add an angel pair to your tank, but I would add some plants

 

[Angelfish FW]

The tank is a 45 long, and current stock is:
7 Rummy nose Tetra
2 dozen or so ghost shrimp
2 mystery snail
3 zebra and 1 leopard danio
2 von Rio Tetra
3 bronze and 1 peppered Cory

If I get angelfish I'm gonna get rid of the danios and possibly the von rios. I'd like to get something else too but I don't know what. Suggestions?I've read that angels are fairly easy (but not a real beginner fish) to care for, and I LOVE the way that they look. Also, is my tank suitable, (see picture below) environmentaly wise?

Yeah don't do it angels can be very aggressive. Certain fish can go with angels I have a fish forgot it's name but the fish gets along with the Angels since they have the same agression level so do not get Angels

 

[kashif314]

You must know in wild angelfish eats neon tetras. Also some tetras are fin nippers. Some Barbs too. You can keep rummy nose but Angels will go after your shrimps for sure. Usually they do that when lights are switched off. Angels are very very easy to keep. I seen them surviving in many harsh conditions. Just they are territorial. My advise is to add all at once. If u buy few now and add few later you will have problems. When you will add all together then they will make there own territories. You should add live plants and wood and u will be fine. Angels are very very pretty fish and very easy to keep. I love all kinds but specially platinum angles are very pretty. Feed them bloodworms often and they will grow in no time.

They are aggressive but not aggressive like African cichlids. They won't bully other fish like tetras. They mind there own business and mostly they are aggressive to there own kind or other south American cichlids like discus. You can put dwarf cichlids like German blue rams or electric blue rams with them. My Angels live in complete harmony with them.

 

[raijevais]

We have 6 Angels (2 Koi, 2 Golden, 2 Veiled) in our 45 Gal. Aqu. along with 6 creamsicle Molly's. think 1 Koi is female and one is Male but I don't know and they are all still very very young.
3 Sword tails, 3 Sunburst Platys, 3 Rainbow Sharks (2 dark 1 albino) One of our Molly's had Fry but before we got home... let's just say the 2 "larger" (like Silver dollar sized) Koi Angels, weren't very hungry for dinner last night. We only knew it was due th the afternoon snack when a lone survivor ventured out to eat, and was eaten.....

I have at least 1 Platy who is about to pop and another Creamsicle I expect to drop with in the week too.

The only aggression is that NO ONE seems to like the sword tails very much... but they seem to do well sticking together.
The angels chase each other but that's about it. I have heard they can be aggressive but we haven't seen it in our 6....

 

[mambee]

I've found that angels work best in large groups in large tanks. I keep 6 very large angels in a 150 gallon tank with 6 geos and about 50 cories. I couldn't keep 2 angels in a 90 gallon tank because the dominant angel was constantly harassing the other one.

IMO, a 45 gallon long is too small for adult angels. My 150 gallon tank has plenty of driftwood and plants to break up lines of sight, and I have no problems even when there is a breeding pair.

Tetras can work with angels, but they have to be large bodied. Danios will definitely be eaten as they occupy the top of the tank and they will always be tempting the angels.