Angel Advice Pls

[forever]

I had a lovely breeding pair of angels for 2 + years, one died two months or so ago.. I have been offered another breeding pair and would like to add them, any issues?? The tank is 400l..
Thx

 

[Munroco]

Its certainly a big tank, so it might be able to accomodate a breeding pair without them picking on your existing angel. You will need a plan B if it doesn't work out between them.

 

[fluttermoth]

I would say it's extremely unlikely to work. The pair will almost certainly harass, and possibly kill, your existing angel. Angels are best kept as singles, mated pairs, or in largish groups (at least six fish), so that any aggression is spread out.

 

[Byron]

I agree.  If the remaining angelfish is the male, you can be certain he views the entire tank as "his" space.  He might well kill the newcomers, especially the male, though it could also work the other way round.  If the remaining fish is the female, it is still risky and here the issue would be that the new male would most likely not accept her in the tank.  Once a pair have bonded, any other lone angelfish are generally viewed as intruders.  
 
If the fish are together from early on and a pair should form, that is quite different, and large tanks can sometimes hold them after a pair has formed from within the original group.  But here you are introducing a new pair to an existing fish.
 
Byron.

 

[forever]

Umm that's a bit of a shame, used to love the whole breeding part..

 

[simplyfish]

Has anyone got any tips on how to re-introduce a fish to partner a mature male Angel. I have a similar situation to above a previous successful breeding pair, unfortunately one of the fish died some time ago.
 
Previous experience tells me that trying to introduce a single juvenile fish has small chance of success compared to a much more likely outcome of bullying.
 
I currently have a planted 200L tank with a male koi angel, a Rottkeil Severum, and apisto cacatuoides.

 

[Akasha72]

I'll just add my experience and let you decide how you want to play it...
 
I had 4 juvenile angels bought seperately (I know, not a good idea but it just worked out that way due to illness) To begin with I had some bickering but it soon settled and all four lived happily in my 240 litre tank. It then turned out that the 'prettiest' two angels (my smokey blushings) were actually a male and a female and they paired up. The other two angels (a platinum pearlscale and a marbled) were also female. I had two local fish stores asking for young smokey blushings and so I decided to remove the smokies to a seperate tank and try and get things going. After 3 failed spawns in their own private tank I decided it wasn't working and I'd return them to the 240 with the other two females... HUGE mistake.
 
Within seconds the pearlscale female had the smokey female in a corner and she was prepared to kill. I tried seperating them with a net, holding the pearlscale against the tank wall until she calmed down but the minute I let her go she was straight at the smokies again and she really was in for the kill.
 
In the end, I had to catch her in a bag and float her and ring my lfs in a panic. They told me to bring her straight to them and they'd rehome her for me. I decided to rehome the marbled female with her and asked the lfs to try rehome them together. It broke my heart to have to let them go but re-adding adult angels is fraught with difficulties and I think you will both struggle to add them.
 
Just my experience and I wish you both luck  

 

[fluttermoth]

Has anyone got any tips on how to re-introduce a fish to partner a mature male Angel. I have a similar situation to above a previous successful breeding pair, unfortunately one of the fish died some time ago.
 
Previous experience tells me that trying to introduce a single juvenile fish has small chance of success compared to a much more likely outcome of bullying.
 
I currently have a planted 200L tank with a male koi angel, a Rottkeil Severum, and apisto cacatuoides.

You could try adding a group of angels (six or seven), and see if your current fish pairs up with one, but it might not work, and in a 200l tank you would almost certainly have to rehome the 'spares' if you did get a true pair.

 

[simplyfish]

Think I'll live with the single one for now. I've seen it several times in the past when I've tried to introduce angels, always seems to start fine until you wake up one day to a shivering wreck of a juvie...
 
I'm moving house later this year and moving to a much larger tank, I might swap the single Angel out for 6-7 juvies at that point. I'll be keeping this tank so If I can establish a pair it might be a good breeding tank without anything else in there eating the fry.

 

[Akasha72]

I have heard of some people being able to re-introduce cichlids by pulling the tank apart and re-scaping it completely. It would appear that by doing this you break up any territory issues. Cichlids are probably the worst type of fish for establishing a territory within the tank and guarding it so viciously that adding another cichlid will result in one heck of a fight at best - death of the 'intruder' at worst.
 
If your planning a new tank with a new scape then you will probably have better chances of introducing the new angels at that point.
 
Hope that makes sense, I've not had my caffeine bomb yet 

 

[Alasse]

Rearranging a tank is a good way to intro them, though i personally just added them as i found them (now i have 11)

 

[UKSPEED]

I had a pair of angels and one died. I've recently introduced 4 juvie angels to the tank, with a worry it wouldn't work.

For now all seems to be peaceful. I was expecting the adult to bully the juvies, but at first to my surprise it was the juvies ganging up on the adult, to the point I though it was going to die of harassment and stress! 

Luckily this has stopped now, and i'm keeping a close eye on their behaviour.

As others said I think it could be possible to introduce others, perhaps it's down to a bit of luck, and who knows how behaviour can change in the future!