angel fish and cardinal tetras

[FishNiX]

hey all-
i have a 29 gallon heavily planted tank and i have a 4" angel fish.... he's pretty aggressive and likes live food (even though i never give it to him on purpose )

i put 5 cardinal tetras in there yesterday, knowing full well that they could all be gone by morning, but my girlfriend really likes them and to be honest, i think they add some nice color.

well, this morning, one is dead, and one is missing... the dead one was stressed last night, so im not surprised. im not possitive that the one i cant find is missing since there are so many plants. ill keep looking for him/her.

my thoughts were that if i added like 8 or 10 of them perhaps the angel wouldnt stress them enough to kill them, or be able to catch them b/c they would school more...any ideas? they are definately schooling now...as much as they can with 3 fish

thanks !!!

 

[babyfish]

It's not safe to add cardinal tetras with a 4in angel, even if you get a shoal of 8-10 of them the angel will pick them off one by one and the tetras will be constantly styressed.
The only way to keep tetras with angels safely is to put the tetras in when the angels are only 1in-2in at the most. Angels do not usually eat tankmates they have grown up with

 

[FishNiX]

that's too bad

they do make rather expensive angel snacks...

 

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

im your tanks mate and i would eat you .... sama:

 

[FishNiX]

interestingly, it seems that the cardinals are becoming more brave, and the angel doesnt seem to be going after them...maybe it will work out after all..

 

[FishNiX]

so far so good, they seem to be rather happily coexisting... occasionally when the angel gets hungry and cant help himself he'll try to grab one, but they seem faster than he is and jump into the plants...