angel fish pelvic fins... do these long fins break off???

[Magnum Man]

on my Mutt, and Tiger expiriement, ( single angel fish, with a silver dollar companion fish ) they still seem to be best buddies, but the angel originally had very long pelvic fins, and a couple months ago, one side was only half as long... if it was "bitten" off, the silver dollar would likely be the most likely culprit, but I'm not seeing any activity that suggests that, and they are still best buddies ( and that fin was long, so likely more that a mouthful )... now this last week the pelvic fin on the other side, half is missing, so the 2 are the same length, again, no change in their relationship... is it likely these long rigid fins break??? there is quite a bit of water flow in this tank, and Mutt, was a pet store fish, obviously a long way from wild genes??? as the 2 fish still seem like best buddies, what are your thoughts??? those fins are now both 1.5 to 2 inches long, so about half of what they were growing out to, and this doesn't seem to negatively effect the fishes swimming...

 

[MaloK]

I have seen erosion cause this because the fish where top feeder and always forced eating from the bottom. If it's the case the tip of the fins will be very sharp and look white and polished to the bone.

Fish that normally swim in mid water but like to rest in the bottom to have less current can also develop this.

But I never seen that causing problems and also never seen infections developing because of that.

 

[Magnum Man]

Most of my foods are slowly sinking, a few floating pellets, but those are mostly ate by the Silver Dollar... the angel fish acts like it doesn't like to eat off the bottom, so greedily gobbles up as much as it can while the food is in mid water... but there are Cory's in there, so I'm wanting some food to make it to the bottom, and lots of Java Fern tangles, that hold food, but I have seen the angel, eating what is meant for the Corys, so it could be abrasion???

 

[GaryE]

They are a fragile point, with tankmates and nets. I've seen a lot of video of incredible fin trailers in the wild, so it's a more captive problem.

 

[MaloK]

In captivity in a shallow tank, they must be better with the short ones. loll.

Most of my foods are slowly sinking, a few floating pellets, but those are mostly ate by the Silver Dollar... the angel fish acts like it doesn't like to eat off the bottom, so greedily gobbles up as much as it can while the food is in mid water... but there are Cory's in there, so I'm wanting some food to make it to the bottom, and lots of Java Fern tangles, that hold food, but I have seen the angel, eating what is meant for the Corys, so it could be abrasion???

Depend on your substrate and as dumb as it can sound, java fern is rough enough to participate in the phenomena.

Constant rubbing is constant rubbing.

 

[Magnum Man]

tank is 24 inches deep, and he's kind of tank boss, so he can do pretty much what and where it wants to... I just hadn't heard of them breaking off, and while they were very long to start, I just couldn't see someone biting it off in the middle... maybe tasting an end??? and then to get the other side matching... just seemed strange

 

[MaloK]

Oh no, I don't think nobody bit him. He didn't care for them treated them as an annoyance and he broke them to get rid of it... It's a major movement impairment no matter the size of the tank for them in captivity.

You can even tell if he is left or right handed at this point. Some have a pronounced enough leaning they end with a fin longer than the other.

And probably in his case he want to become a silver dollar... So theoretically he will start with the same haircut.

lolll...

 

[GaryE]

I've seen that a few times. I had an angel that followed the same sequence, but the first one broke when he came out of the bag from the store - a netting accident. Why the other one was 'trimmed' to the same size a long while later, I never figured out.

I find the pectorals on a lot of fancy angels really ugly and inelegant. They often have stumpy fins, no pectorals and a little line of mutated scales. Not my cup of tea.