Angel Aggression

[deucebrennan]

I have a Juwel vision 180 that has been set up for 8 months or so now. I have had 6 angels in there for 5 months now. They were about 2" when i put then in. Now the biggest ones are 5". One never got any bigger and i never saw him eat. He died after about three months. One of the others has also stopped growing and is about 3.5".

Anyway, One of them started chasing the others around the tank. I kept an eye on it and it never seemed to go as far as fin nipping and after a few week he stopped. Now he has stared to pair up with one of the others. Now he has become very aggressive and is fin nipping. I had hoped that it would pass. He only goes for two of the angels. Never hurting his partner or the runty little guy. He only nips and chases the other two. I moved the plants and decor about to re establish territory but this has not helped. I have noticed that the two victim angels have torn pectoral fins and the tail fins are looking shabby now.

I have put them in into a hospital tank and im adding Melafix. Will the fins grow back or are they scarred for life?

Also i think i might need to get them rehomed now.

Any ideas folks

 

[Corleone]

The earlier aggression was probably the fish sorting out dominance, since it subsided, it's probably alright now.

You might have to rehome the pair, they'll probably continue to harass the others. Tolak and others can give much better info on this, however, if they do lay eggs, the stores in my area pay 3-4 times as much for a pair that's spawned than they would for just two random fish.

The torn fins will heal. All it takes is good water quality, no further attacks, and time. Melafix can help, but I've found even badly damaged fins usually will heal without treatment.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes clean water and no stress is all they need for fins to recovery but melafix can speed up the process.

the bullying will most likely continue though if you don't re-home some of the fish.

 

[kribensis12]

Yes, the bullying will continue. They will eventually bully the angels to death if you let them. I would remove the other angels and keep the pair. You could sell the non paired ones to the lfs and get some money, which you can buy some other fish stuff with. If they spawn and there are other angels in the tank, watch out, fighting will happen.

 

[deucebrennan]

I have removed the two victims and put them into a separate tank. I would rather re-home theses guys as i wanted to have a spawning pair. The bully has never shown any aggression toward other fish in the tank, just the 2 angels.
Do you think that would be ok?