Angelfish Tank mates

[Fishoftheday]

Hi all,

Im looking for suggestions for a schooling fish to go in with my angelfish

I currently have 1 angelfish, 5 albino Cory's and 6 panda Cory's.

Don't want anything to big, or to small, thinking somehting along the lines of maybe 7 or 8 lemon tetras. My filtration isn't an issue, and my tank is a 125L planted tank, I am wary of the stocking levels when fully grown, but will move the angel as and when needed. Trying to keep a peaceful community tank so don't want any agro in there as current stock gets along very well together.

TIA!

 

[Colin_T]

How big is the angelfish?

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website (Water Analysis Report) or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

 

[Fishoftheday]

Tank dimensions are 80x30x50cm

My hardness is 38ppm, water pH is 7 straight from the taps.

 

[anewbie]

serpae tetra work well; they will remain in the lower area of the tank between the cory and the angel as long as you have decent plant cover. A school of 10 maybe. cardinals are among my favorite but large adult males can eat them though it depends on the fish; usually the female stay a bit smaller though there are always exception to these rules. black neon are an option but they tend to hang higher in the angel region. There are a lot of tetras similar to serpae with different colours and behaviors so it comes to a matter of taste but i've always liked my large group of serape.

 

[Fishoftheday]

Brill, thanks mate, any info always appreciated. Just want a splash of colour, Cory's are really active but I went albino Cory's and albino veil tail Angel.

It's quite well planted my tank - I've attached a picture - be kind it's my 1st ever scape

 

[Essjay]

Just to warn you - as anewbie said, if you decide on serpaes you need a good number of them as they are notorious fin nippers if there aren't enough of them.

 

[anewbie]

Just to warn you - as anewbie said, if you decide on serpaes you need a good number of them as they are notorious fin nippers if there aren't enough of them.

I've heard many people say they are fin nippers but i've had as few as 2 with angles and never had an issue; if anything they always seemed a bit weary of the larger fish. I'm not sure if i've always been lucky or if the actual fin nippers were a serpae like species that was different. I just never had an issue despite hearing the comment many times.

 

[Essjay]

Many years ago when I first had tropical fish I bought 6 serpaes - or at least fish that were sold as serpaes. Next morning every other fish in the tank had bits missing. The serpaes swam round the tank in tight V formation. They went back to the shop.
I freely admit the tank was overstocked and was really too small for serpaes (2 foot tank) but this was before we had broadband so my source of information was limited to out of date books in the town library which never advised on shoal sizes or suitable tank sizes, so any aggression from the fish was partly my fault.

 

[anewbie]

Many years ago when I first had tropical fish I bought 6 serpaes - or at least fish that were sold as serpaes. Next morning every other fish in the tank had bits missing. The serpaes swam round the tank in tight V formation. They went back to the shop.
I freely admit the tank was overstocked and was really too small for serpaes (2 foot tank) but this was before we had broadband so my source of information was limited to out of date books in the town library which never advised on shoal sizes or suitable tank sizes, so any aggression from the fish was partly my fault.

So the smallest tank i've had them in was a 120; i did have 6 white fin rosy - a similar but larger less active fish in a 29. This is my group which mostly remain just above or below the plants (I think there are 25 to 30 of them in all):

This is the full tank:

They are in the small area at the far end of the tank near the 29 on the other side - i rarely see them come out of the plant area 'cept during feeding IF they are hungry.

 

[Essjay]

The tank in this thread is only slightly larger than the first tank I had; it's just 80 cm/31 inches long. One of the reasons I advised caution, together with buying more than 6.
I'd love a 120 gallon tank, there's just no room for one unless we get rid of our furniture.......

 

[anewbie]

The tank in this thread is only slightly larger than the first tank I had; it's just 80 cm/31 inches long. One of the reasons I advised caution, together with buying more than 6.
I'd love a 120 gallon tank, there's just no room for one unless we get rid of our furniture.......

So that is a good point that if the space is tight they might react differently - in a 120 they didn't use that much space but width here will make a big difference (height isn't useful). I concede that at 12 inches wide this tank might be pushing it and if that angel gets as large as my male it will be too big for a 29. My male angelfish in the 600 is nearly 6 inches head to tail; sorry i always get confused converting metric to english. You know when i was a kid they were going to switch to metric but then never did

 

[Lateral Line]

Other folk have said this earlier, but I will say it again anyway. Serpae can be problematic. They are notorious fin nippers. In an appropriate tank they are great, good colour, (if you can get decent stock - there are a lot of poor quality fish around), active etc. but I would not keep them again.