Angelfish Fighting?

[bordercollie05]

I started my tank up in October with my yellow angelfish and added the second one (striped) at the end of November or so. They have never had any real problems aside from the initial bickering for establishing rank. I don't know the sex of them. Yesterday I noticed that the striped one was hiding in a funny way behind the plants. He has a few scales missing. I watched the tank for about half an hour and noticed that the yellow one is really picking on the striped one. I've got the striped one in a 5 gallon bucket with a sponge filter for now. Is there anything I should do to treat him (salts, meds, etc?).

I'd like to keep both of them so I'm thinking about rearranging and watching closely to see if they stop fighting. Any advice is appreciated, I really am fond of both my angels.


Tank size: 28
pH: 7.8 (high, but I'm pretty sure they've grown up in it...seem fine)
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: ~15
kH: ?
gH: ?
tank temp: ~78-80

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): see above

Volume and Frequency of water changes: ~20% weekly

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: just chlorine remover

Tank inhabitants: 2 angels, 5 serpae tetras, 1 lemon tetra, 1 talking catfish, 5 corydoras leucomelas, one snail

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): added bogwood about three weeks ago, nothing live for 3 months

Exposure to chemicals: none

 

[aquanovice]

Try and find out the sex of them. Maybe ask youe LFS and you might find out you have two aggressive males or something. Im not an expert on angels but it might do you some good to research there temprement.
Good Luck!

 

[bordercollie05]

Try and find out the sex of them. Maybe ask youe LFS and you might find out you have two aggressive males or something. Im not an expert on angels but it might do you some good to research there temprement.
Good Luck!

I know males can be aggressive when they mature, but I've also heard its basically impossible to sex angels reliably without them breeding.

 

[angela_brown]

Unfortunately, you can't sex your angelfish unless they are in spawning mode.

The ovapositor looks like a tube coming out of the bottom of the female, the eggs must come down through it... The male's is thinner, and pointy.

You need to get your angel back in tip top health before you reintroduce them. The scales will come back. You might want to try some Melafix... but if you don't want to... just make sure to do daily water changes on the bucket to keep him clean.

One suggestion I have would be to remove the gold angel. Leave him in a bucket for a couple of hours. Rearrange the tank, i.e. the plants and bogwood. Let the striped Angel have the run of the tank, then reintroduce the gold angel and see if they still fight. You can also get tank dividers to introduce fish... the kind that you can see through.

I have 2 pair in a tank, and they won't lay now that I've put them all in one tank, even though I have a clear divider... My one male picks on the 2 new ones. Last night's water change was the first time that he hasn't bullied them in a month. But they were the last tank drained and the first one filled...

Good Luck and keep us Posted

Angela

 

[aquanovice]

Unfortunately, you can't sex your angelfish unless they are in spawning mode.

The ovapositor looks like a tube coming out of the bottom of the female, the eggs must come down through it... The male's is thinner, and pointy.

You need to get your angel back in tip top health before you reintroduce them. The scales will come back. You might want to try some Melafix... but if you don't want to... just make sure to do daily water changes on the bucket to keep him clean.

One suggestion I have would be to remove the gold angel. Leave him in a bucket for a couple of hours. Rearrange the tank, i.e. the plants and bogwood. Let the striped Angel have the run of the tank, then reintroduce the gold angel and see if they still fight. You can also get tank dividers to introduce fish... the kind that you can see through.

I have 2 pair in a tank, and they won't lay now that I've put them all in one tank, even though I have a clear divider... My one male picks on the 2 new ones. Last night's water change was the first time that he hasn't bullied them in a month. But they were the last tank drained and the first one filled...

Good Luck and keep us Posted

Angela

 

[bordercollie05]

Hi, thanks for the information. I'm wondering if maybe they are in spawning mode? How do you know the difference between aggression before spawning and territorial aggression?

 

[kribensis12]

If they wer spawning, there breeding tubes woul be out and one would be very fat. Yours are fighting. Melafix is a Very weak med, i would pick something up a little stoinger to prevent, but good old water changes could be a better preventative if done correctly. I would take the stronger angel out, add the toher one, wait several hours, then introduce the yellow. I've done it before, with good results.

 

[Rutters19]

I had this problem when i added another large angel fish to my community tank to go with the large one i already have.More than likely a territorial thing,or to show who's the boss.

My original marble angel (slightly larger than the wild type i introduced) continuously chased the new angel,being really aggressive,and really gave it what for,damaging scales and tail etc....

It's a worrying sight,but eventually i had to let nature take its course,and now luckily they both seem to get on fine!!

If it would have carried on,i would have tried the method stated a few times above,and taken out the stronger angel for a few hours then re-introduced it.

Good luck and i hope you can sort this out

 

[PRW1988]

It may not be the other angel that did anything to it, keep a close eye on the behaviour of the serpae tetras and the walking catfish as to me they may be the culprates (spelling?). Try melafix or Pimafix, one of the has alovera in it which should help out.

 

[bordercollie05]

Thanks for the information guys.

I am pretty sure its the other angel, not another fish....although the serpaes are a little nippy, they don't really pursue the chase.

Is it unusual to have problems like this after months? Usually these two are happy swimming together, following each other, and I've only seen them nip at each other in the very beginning. Of course, it could very well be that I just don't see the behavior most times.


I'll start adding melafix and re-introduce them properly in a few days



Laura

 

[kribensis12]

Yeah it's possible after months. Last September( i think?) i bought 1 angelfish. A dalmation. Then later i bought a All black angel. They were fine for a long time. Then this January( maybe feb!) the black one all of a sudden opened a can of whop ass and almost killed the dalmation one. I took the black one to my freind. Only to hear it died 2 weeks later form anchorworm.