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Chaim

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Oct 6, 2021
Messages
74
Location
Spring Valley, NY
Hi, I have an adult emperor angelfish in 180 g for about 2 years. Last week I bought an adult majestic angle (my lfs said that it shouldn’t be a problem mixing those angles). When I added the majestic, my emperor started chasing him around. I sectioned the majestic off to the side of the tank for a week, hoping the the emperor will get used to its presence. Just let it out today after a week and he’s still getting chased around. Any advice?
 
I just waned to add to my question. Is it possible that he will only chase the majestic back into his cave for a day or two then stop? Should I try to section the emperor off to the side for a few days? Or should I give my emperor to my lfs to babysit him for a month or so, so when I introduce the emperor back to my tank it won’t feel like it’s his tank anymore?
 
I just waned to add to my question. Is it possible that he will only chase the majestic back into his cave for a day or two then stop? Should I try to section the emperor off to the side for a few days? Or should I give my emperor to my lfs to babysit him for a month or so, so when I introduce the emperor back to my tank it won’t feel like it’s his tank anymore?
Sadly, your LFS gave you some bad advice. Emperators are the king of the tank. If you wanted to try adding other Angels with him, you should have put him in last. The general rule for mixing marine angels is not adding Angels from the same shape or the same oceans together. So if you want to mix, you add dwarfs with pigmys or large sized Angels. You can mix pigmys but are better off keeping them in a school of their own ( 1 male and a number of females) or pigmy's of different oceans. ( i.e. Atlantic pigmy angels with Pacific species like Fisheri or White tail. You wouldn't want to mix say an Atlantic Pigmy with either of the Flameback Angels, African or Caribbean, because they look too similar. ) Since these pigmys like coral rubble, you need to have a lot of live rock with smaller pieces scattered all around a large tank. Same with different species of dwarf angels.
Majestic angels on the whole are not very gregarious so they will hide a lot and will not usually fight with other species of Angels in their same family or defend themselves. They really should be the only large Angel specie in a very large tank. IME, the best mix with a majestic is a Regal Angel as both of these species are scaredy cats. ;) LOL
Just an FYI, years ago there was an article in TFH magazine about Emperators breeding in the wild. 1 male was followed and the author found that the territory the 1 male patrolled was close to a square mile and he was spawning with a female in all 4 corners. So Emperators need A LOT of space. A 180 is a drop in the bucket to them.
At this point, I would return one of the Angels and if you keep the Emp, that's it for other Angels ( especially since he's had 2 years of claiming his territory, the whole tank, so you would need to totally rearrange your decor so that all the fish would have to claim new territories if you were to try any new smaller Angel species. )

Hope this helps. (y)
 
Thanks for your lengthy response! Is there any solution in keeping them together? For example would it help to give the emperor to the store for a month so when it comes back it will feel that the tank is the majestic territory and live together peacefully or it would remember that it used to be the king of that tank and bully again even after a month in a different place? And was thinking one other thing, what about swapping for a different emperor angle would that help. Or just best to skip the whole thing?
 
Thanks for your lengthy response! Is there any solution in keeping them together? For example would it help to give the emperor to the store for a month so when it comes back it will feel that the tank is the majestic territory and live together peacefully or it would remember that it used to be the king of that tank and bully again even after a month in a different place? And was thinking one other thing, what about swapping for a different emperor angle would that help. Or just best to skip the whole thing?
It's a bad mix in a small tank. I'd forget that whole idea. These are just 2 species that shouldn't be kept together unless you got a large adult majestic to pair with a small juvenile Emperator and the Majestic was in the tank first and long enough to establish itself. Adding your adult Emp after being away from the tank will not really solve your problem as once it gets used to the tank again, it will take over. Even the pairing I suggested above is just a short term answer, not a permanent solution. You would really need a much larger tank to keep these 2 together longer term.
Is your Emperator grunting yet? I had a customer raise an Emp in a 300 gal and it got big enough that when it grunted, you could hear it anywhere in his apartment. LOL I was visiting him one day and heard it and I was like :shocked!::shock:😲 because he also had an adult clown sweetlips in the tank and I thought it was that fish grunting because it was so loud. LOL The customer told me it was the Angel because it was doing it since before the sweetlip was in there. LOL So they do demand attention.
 
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