Angelfish Bonding

[Sparx]

Just curious really. We have two in our tank and I guess they’re roughly about 9 months old.. I’m still not sure of the genders but one of them is a bit bigger than the other.
But my question is, do Angelfish only bond to breed or can they bond if they are the same sex, like besties if you will? And how do you know if/when they are bonded? What are the tell tale signs?

 

[Magnum Man]

I’ve had 2 in the same tank for a little over a year… assuming they are siblings or got to be friends from the dealer or early in this tank, as I don’t think it’s sexual, and there is no aggression displayed between them, one has grown almost twice the size of the other, but they were nearly identical when I got them.. I’ve never bred angels? And can’t sex them, so no idea if they are male or female, or one of each, and just choose not to mate… I would think conditions would be good, as my Rummy Noses have group spawned a few times

 

[GaryE]

In my experience angels bond as pairs. That doesn't mean they'll spawn.

 

[anewbie]

occasionally 2 females will bond; i've never heard of 2 males bonding. They do not bond for life; if they fail to breed enough time the female will chase the male away.

 

[Sparx]

How do you know if they’re bonded?

My two kind of follow each other around the tank, but then on occasion they’re at two different ends of the tank.
Sometimes they squabble, normally over food, but neither one seems to want to stand down or get chased away. They’ll take a couple of nips at each other then go back to eating.
Recently after feeding I noticed them both chasing the other fish away, like they were either defending an area, or just being greedy!

I’ve researched how to sex Angels and this video I found says to look out for the anal tube which becomes swollen around the time they’re getting ready to spawn.
So far I see nothing
It also said about males being bigger and having a nuchal hump but I think mine are still too young for that.