Angelfish, filter current, and another question

[gimmethatfish]

Hi all - my wife wanted some angelfish, so I set up an angelfish tank for her over the weekend. It's a 55 gallon corner bowfront (picture a realllllly tall slice of pie). I currently have just a spare filter on it - it's an Aqueon Quietflow 75. The filter was completely cycled in a bucket in my basement, so that's all set. I do have 2 other other filters on order for this tank (a Fluval C4 and a SunSun canister), but they won't arrive for several days.

Yesterday we stocked the tank with 6 angelfish and 6 kuhli loaches. The angels are still young and small - the largest is maybe 2.5 inches across. They handled the car trip and the acclimation well. I've never kept angelfish before, and I'm concerned about the current. The way the filter is situated, it seems to create kind of a circular vortex. The angels seem to be clustered together in one corner of the tank, although they do swim around and aren't "huddled" and don't look stressed. And the boldest one swims around through the current like it's nothing. Could it be that the others just need to get used to it? Think I should baffle it temporarily?

Also, has anyone ever kept honey gouramis with angels? I have a honey gourami who had to be pulled out of my 120 gallon because she spent all of her time chasing around my male German blue ram, who is the most docile guy in the world and just wouldn't fight back. The gourami has never bothered anyone other than this one ram. She is rather active and boisterous, but I've never seen her actually go after any other fish aside from him. She's a little smaller than the smallest angelfish. My other choice is to keep her alone in a 10 gallon tank, but I'd like to avoid having to set up another tank if I can.

 

[r-pain]

I'm not an angelfish guy, but you're probably gonna have to isolate the gourami. I had one the constantly picked on my rainbow shark, moved him to my 20 gallon and he chose to pick on a single Mickey platy. I then have him to my friend and he chose to pick on his small Oscar, however one day the Oscar got tired of it and you can guess what happened next.

 

[gimmethatfish]

Stupid gourami.

 

[aqua_holic]

You know you have to give the fish time to settle in. You just got them yesterday..... It's way too early to be making any decisions about changing anything. It's far more likely that their behavior is a result of being new.

 

[gimmethatfish]

Just thought I'd get other people's opinions on currents since I've never kept angelfish before.

 

[Andy Sager]

Angelfish usually prefer slower moving currents and this may be your issue with the huddling in a corner. The fastest way to tell is to turn off the filter and see what the Angels do. If they come out rather quickly, there's your answer I always downsize my filters for smaller Angels which also means understocking the tanks so as to not over tax the filtering system.

As for the Gourami, if there is enough cover in the tank for the gourami to hide in and the Angels to be "out of sight" of the Gourami, they should be okay. Keep in mind, however, that not all fish "read the book" and you may just have a nasty fish, for whatever reason, and will need to be dealt with.

Hope this helps

 

[gimmethatfish]

Oh duh. I never thought of just turning off the filter to see. I'm not real smart I guess lol. Thanks!

 

[Ricky 1]

It is best to pick 6 angels so they can pair up, when they do you would need to take some back, as 6 is too many for a 55, and they will fight like mad, sometimes to the death of the weakest, I changed mine for GBR and they get on fine with my pair of angels....

 

[jetajockey]

I think 6 is ok for a 55. As mentioned though you may have issues when they pair up. Keep plenty of plants for cover and it may not be that much of a problem. The honey gourami will be outgrown by the angels in short order.

 

[gimmethatfish]

I have a lot of cover, and I do have a backup plan for any issues with mating. I know the pet store would take any problem fish back - I have a very good relationship with them. But I had a long talk with the owner, and he thought they would be fine in the 55 gallon considering they have grown up together and given the amount of plants. I will watch them closely.

 

[PNWaquarist]

For the long run, I'd use spray bars with your canisters to diffuse the filter output.

For the meantime with the HOB, keep the water level high and you might want to consider attaching a piece of plastic to the filter output to help diffuse it.

 

[Ricky 1]

Good thinking GF.........They will eventually grow as big as your hand, so put 6 hands up on the front of your tank..........

 

[Andy Sager]

Oh duh. I never thought of just turning off the filter to see. I'm not real smart I guess lol. Thanks!

Don't worry, this isn't an intelligence test Turning off filters is rather counter intuitive to what we are always told so no worries you didn;t think of it. More than likely, they won;t feel the lack of current and immediately run around the tank so make sure you have some form of aeration ( air operated stone or decoration ) in there so that they can " test the waters" while the rest of the fish don;t have "lackaoxygen" issues.

 

[aqua_holic]

How long are you suggesting they leave the filter off that oxygen levels would be a concern?

 

[Andy Sager]

How long are you suggesting they leave the filter off that oxygen levels would be a concern?

30 - 60 minutes. It's just a precaution as other people reading this may not have such a low stock level and lack of oxygen ( a.k.a. LackaAir ) might be an issue. If the filter is the issue, it's going to need to remain off so another one will need to be put into action. Having the aeration increases the time available to do that.

 

[Luananeko]

Honey gourami are usually more docile, so depending on fish personalities it may be ok with the angels. Keep a close eye on things though, as they do like the same level of the tank and you could run into territorial issues. It sounds like you already have a backup plan ready, so a carefully monitored experiment should be fine.

The angels should be fine with your filtration once they grow up more, but it's very possible that the current is a bit brisk for them right now. They're not the most coordinated while young, and the stress of fighting the current could cause you to lose some of them. Try Andy's suggestion to test the theory out, and if they perk up from the experience you can add a baffle, as suggested earlier.

 

[aqua_holic]

30 - 60 minutes. It's just a precaution as other people reading this may not have such a low stock level and lack of oxygen ( a.k.a. LackaAir ) might be an issue. If the filter is the issue, it's going to need to remain off so another one will need to be put into action. Having the aeration increases the time available to do that.

It takes me longer than that to get home from the fish store. I'd hate to see the tank that can't support it's stock for an hour without the filter running...

 

[Andy Sager]

It takes me longer than that to get home from the fish store. I'd hate to see the tank that can't support it's stock for an hour without the filter running...

I agree but haven't you seen the threads with "is this too many fish for my tank?" That's an indication that people might be overstocking.

 

[aqua_holic]

Such a tank goes WAY beyond overstocked. Would probably break aqadvisor.

 

[gimmethatfish]

Thanks all. I ended up not having to turn of the filter at all - though it's not like I was going to uplug it and then go to bed lol! After I fed them last night, they all came out of their cluster and started swimming around with no trouble. Even the "portly" one didn't really have any trouble swimming right past the filter output. So I guess they were just waiting for dinner or something.

As for the gourami, I decided it wasn't worth the drama, so I popped her into my spare 10 gallon tank. FG (fat gourami, a nickname that stuck because she is HUGE) seems to like being Queen of the tank. I'm thinking of getting her a trio of guppies as her minions. She has never bullied any of the little fish.