Angelfish Being Aggressive.....separation Help Needed!

[icecoolkitten]

Hello all!
I bought 2 angelfish as babies hoping they'd get along, but that's now obvious that's not going to happen as one keeps chasing/nipping the other and making them hide behind the rock in the corner of the tank.

It's obvious I'm going to have to separate them, and as I can't afford a second tank, I'm going to have to give one away or back to my LFS. But which one do I keep? Is it better to keep the more aggressive one or give that one away?

Thanks in advanced for any advice!

 

[KittyKat]

What size is the tank, and what age and size are the angels now?

 

[Fishmanic]

I don't think it matters which one you keep as long as you don't get another angel for the same tank.

 

[icecoolkitten]

The tank is a roma 125, so 120ish litres, I've had the angels about 6 months, one of them (the aggressive one) is about 10cm (from the tip of fin to bottom of fin) and the other one is bigger at about 14cm fin to fin.
X x

 

[BerryAttack]

keep the most active one for a better chance of survival. but it depends on interference of which one you like better. colour, size, aggression towards you.. etc etc.

 

[SarahR]

If you want, you can try to get them past this phase and see if they will coexist. Unpaired adolescent angels can be pretty full of themselves, but it doesn't always last. You also didn't say what kind of angels they were (color, type, and backround if you know.)

Anyway, if you want to give it a shot.
Put both together in a large bucket of tank water and cover it so they are in the dark- make sure to maintain temp.
While they are in there, do a large water change and completely rearrange as much of the tank decor as possible. Make sure there are good hiding spots, but always with two openings. In other words, an entrance and an exit- you don't want one angel to be able to trap or corner the other.
When you finish, leave the bully in the bucket and return the other to the tank. Feed it a little something. After an hour or so, put the other one back and feed them both. See what happens.

Sometimes you need to repeat this a couple times before they settle. Sometimes it doesn't work at all.
Are breeding tubes showing on either and/or is either cleaning a spawning surface?

 

[SarahR]

Oh, and if you don't use carbon or you do and it's more than a week old, put in some fresh. It (might) help at reducing / removing some of the hormones from the water that get them all twitterpated.

Also, how long has the bullying been going on? If it's fairly recent it doesn't necessarily even mean they are incompatible, just that one could be maturing a bit sooner and the other is clueless so it just wants out. They could be two males, two females, or a pair- until they are old enough to act right even they probably can't tell.

 

[SarahR]

One more suggestion. If your tank decor is such that the only time one angel is out of the other's sight is if it's hiding, I would change it. Put something near the center that breaks up their line of sight, a piece of driftwood, very tall dense plants (real or fake), anything at all. You just want to create two decent size "territories" they will feel comfortable in because they can't actually see the other. They will know the other is there, but that usually doesn't matter - once they have a nice bit of real estate to themselves they will often both cool it. Give it a try.

 

[icecoolkitten]

SarahR thanks for that info, I'm going to give that a go as I'd really like to keep them both if possible!
It's been happening on and off for about 3 weeks. Whenever I feed them, it's almost non existent as they both eating together in close proximity, and then as soon as the food has been eaten it starts again.
I'm embarrassed to say that I know nothing of their background, all I know is that they were sold to me as 'koi angelfish' (I don't even know if they are male/female so I'll attempt to attach a couple of photos and if anyone can sex them for me that would be a plus! I've been calling them Betty and Bertie I may be wrong!)

I don't know how to attach photos, so I've linked them,

This is Betty - the bully (you can just about see Bertie hiding behind the rock in background)
http/instagram.com/p/gqv4kCjCvA/

And this one is Bertie - Photo was taken as food was in tank - hence why he's not hiding!
http/instagram.com/p/gqru1jjCpD/

They aren't the best photos, taken on my iPhone!
Thanks for your advice, I have a day off on Friday so I'll put your plan into action, fingers crossed!
Charlie x

 

[SarahR]

Nice Kois. Yes, I would give it a go, they may settle down once they work out what sex they are- they may not even know yet. I could guess from the pics, but I avoid that. Unless the tubes are down it's really just a crap shoot. Kois have been highly inbred for color, not as many seem to show secondary sex characteristics until mature and even then not pronounced depending on the line. Anyway, you just want them to get along regardless I assume? Same sex pairs can live peacefully. At this age you are going to see a lot of bickering, even pairs go through a rather rambunctious phase.
Watch them for really dangerous type fighting, such as aiming for the eyes or one actually pinned on it's side not trying to escape anymore. Locking jaws is a normal behavior, and usually indicates they are trying to pair up. As I mentioned, if you rearrange the tank into two distinct territories separated by a partial visual boundary, they frequently calm down considerably.
Best of luck!