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Pairing of Adult Angels - Bad Idea???!!!

722 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Mori, 
I
Yesterday I finally found what I believe to be is a female pearlscale angel. She's about 2.5 inches in diameter and she's beautiful. I was so excited. I have been looking for months for a nice size female angel to put in my 99 gallon tank WITH what I believe to be is a MALE angel. I've had this male angel for over a year... grew him from nickel size. He's about 2 inches in diameter. (About a half inch smaller than the female I just purchased) I don't really care if they mate or not. My point in getting a female is that I've read that two grown males may fight to the death over territory. I thought 'he' would be more accepting of a 'she'. BOY WAS I EVER WRONG! He took to nipping/attacking her immediately. She never nipped back nor tried to defend herself. My tank is 99 gallons so surely it's big enough for these two. I woke up this morning and she's hiding in some plants and her fins are now shredded! I scooped him up and put him in one of those small breeding containers within the tank. She came out of hiding immediately. When he sees her swim by he goes ballistic banging his head on the plastic container he's in. She's still terrified of him and runs to the other end of the tank. What gives?

There are 3 other small angels in the tank and they all get along fine with him. They are too small to sex yet. They are about the size of a quarter. They were added months AFTER him and he was fine with them. I do have a spare tank, but it's a hard water tank. I'm about to go make it into a soft water tank and put HIM into it to chill out. I thought I'd let her heal and then try and reintroduce them again. Does this sound logical? Is there a better way? If I don't seperate them now, she'll surely die. My spare tank is a 30 gallon w/ nothing but an algae eater in it. I had plans of making it a species tank with Tiger Barbs, but now that'll have to wait until I figure out what to do about these angels. Will I have to get rid of one of them? This male angel has NEVER been aggressive toward anyone in the tank. Please help. I don't want to lose either fish!

It has been about 5 hours since I isolated 'him' and I thought I'd update you on the status. He is no longer beating his head in a mad rampage to get at 'her' and 'she' is now choosing to stay by his side! She has 99 gallons to swim around in and now she's just hanging out next to him!? (He's still in the floating fry plastic box - forget what you call it) I'm still working on getting the other tank ready for him, but am now wondering if I'll have to. Any thoughts?
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C
Angel's are territorial. One common method used is to rearrange the whole tank so it looks totally different, then introduce both angels back in there again. They will still be aggressive, but not as aggressive as before, since they will soon establish their own territories.

I'm not sure if having tiger barbs in with angels. If I remember correctly, tiger barbs are fin nippers and will tear up the angels fins.
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I
Oh no... I won't be putting Tiger Barbs in with Angels. I was just saying that the empty tank was suppose to be for them alone, but that now it'll have to wait until I can figure something out with the angels.

I'll try rearranging the tank, but that'll be easier said than done. I've got plants that I'd have to uproot and LARGE pieces of drift wood that may not fit any other way.

Thanks for the reply!
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drtechno
Don't be fooled by the name, Angels are aggressive. What I have done in the past to put Angels in a tank with other angels successfully is: feed the tank first. then remove decorations, and uproot plants ( I know thats sound crazy)
If possible, go down to one light or turn off the aquarium light and introduce more than one angelfish at a time. the trick is to remove all boundaries that were established in the tank by the current fish and with introduction of more than one fish will be distracting enough that territorial fish don't single out the "newbie".
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M
The redecorating trick often works. Bet you're not looking forwards to "redecorating" a 99 gallon planted tank though!

If you can move the aggressor into a different tank for a few days and then reintroduce him, they might get along better...or not. They're interesting, frustrating little critters!
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