Bullying Angel :(

[TNW]

I've had two angelfish since they were about an inch long, in a 3' tank with mixed tetras, corys, swordtails etc and they've been fine. One of them seems to have developed a mean personality though, and will sit in a corner of the tank and chase away the black widows and the other angel. Strangely enough, it completely disregards the neons entirely, only going for the more "round" fish (it also ignores the swordtails). The widows are generally okay with it, but sometimes I see chunks taken out of the other angelfish's tail, which heal up quickly but I'm worried one day it'll get infected and harm the angel (who really is an angel and hasn't harmed anything in the tank).
I've recently set up a 4' tank so I could move one of them into that, but I'm worried that whichever tank the mean angel is in would have to be fish-free which I really don't want to do. Will this behaviour only get worse as it gets older, or will there someday be a peace between the two fish? I don't want to take it back to the shop, but if it's going to be a problem fish I'm not really happy keeping him on his own...

 

[crazie.eddie]

Angels are territorial and do get aggressive for dominance, but usually not get too physical. I had 2 angels in a 55 (US) gallon tank, that will usually fight with each other. The strange thing is, they would sometimes swim together as if nothing was going on. I had both angels since they were very small, which was over 10 years ago. I later moved them into a 125 gallon tank and the same fought as well. Unfortunately, I had to put 1 angel to sleep due to me being unable to cure swim bladder problems for over 3 months. I later added more angels. The new angels would also fight, but still not getting really physical.

FYI, if the black widow is a black skirt tetra, those are typically fin nippers. I've heard of some people having them and adding a few more to keep their aggression down towards the angels and had success, but I would not risk it.

 

[TNW]

Thanks for your reply

It's like you say, the two angel fish can often be seen swimming near each other, though it doesn't usually last for long. The black widows (skirt) tetras have never looked at another fish in the 6 months or so that I've had them, so I'm definitely putting the boisterous angel down as the cause of the torn tail.

 

[dollfaced]

I bought three small angels 2-3 years ago and they lived fine till the same thing like you have, happend to me. Two were mainly dominant and would fight each other and pick on the third. It looked like they were going to kill each other. But the dominant two were testing each other to become potential mates. They did pair off and eventually killed the third... Anyway, now they still fight but not to kill each other and happen to have fry now. I don't know how old yours is but you can have an extremely territorial angel. I know my female will not let anything, not even the male, go near her eggs now. She tries to fight everything through the divider in my tank.

 

[TNW]

I really don't want anything like that happening with my angels... the one being bullied is a very beautiful and peaceful fish I would move it to my bigger tank, but it's only been set up a short while and I don't want him to possibly eat any of the cherry barbs I've placed in there as some of them are still very small.

The angels are about 1 1/2 to 2 inches from mouth to the back part of the body, so still fairly small.

 

[E3ramirez]

Yeah move the angelfish. They will get killed there ( that happened to mine )

 

[TNW]

Well I just moved the bullied angelfish to my larger tank. His tail's been having new chunks taken out of it every day (the big bully angelfish's tail is absolutely intact). He's been eyeing up the smaller cherry barbs, but so far they've swam away from him and he lost interest, so hopefully they'll live in peace.

 

[LaurieLou]

Hopefully, things will quiet down now for you. We have four angels and the two females take turns mating with the male, Blackie. The 4th angel, Spike, is just a sweetheart and none of the angels bother him, but the two females I think get jealous or something, because they go after each other, usually when the other one is getting ready to do her thing with the male. I find the behaviours these fish exhibit towards each other fascinating actually, but you sure do need to watch them sometimes. Are you hoping to put another angel with him eventually?

 

[TNW]

Honestly, I'd rather keep them both alone. I don't want to risk getting another boisterous angelfish.