Cardinal Tetras & Angelfish

[Akasha72]

 
As for cardinals and angelfish, this is not normally good company.  Angelfish will if healthy attain a good six inches in length, and they can easily eat linear tetra.  Having said that, when the fish "grow up together," this sometimes does not occur.  I think Akasha has some experience with this.
 
Byron.

 
Indeed. My angels grew up with several small fish and all is well. I had black neons when they were young (the last one of the group died just a couple of weeks ago) It is well known that angels prey on neons in the wild and we normally wouldn't advise keeping the two together but it can work when the angels are added as babies and the small fish are already there. They see them as 'family' and not 'food'. Currently my angel pair live with 9 harlequins and 3 otocinclus. They chases the harlequins away from their territory but they've never tried to eat them. As for the oto's, there has been horrible stories of angels trying to eat them and the oto's extending their barbed fins wedging themselves in the angels mouth. The end result it the loss of both fish. It is something that concerns me but so far we're good. The angels havn't even noticed the oto's and they've been together for 18 months now

 

[simonas]

just sold my three angels that eat 11 cardinals in a month. Granted mine were sub adult and I took them in free prior to getting my discus this weekend. They were more predatory than I expected though. Just beware. Lovely fish though

 

[Akasha72]

I would agree with simonas, be wary, keep a count on the cardinals and be ready to move them if they start disappearing

 

[Jeremy180]

 

 
As for cardinals and angelfish, this is not normally good company.  Angelfish will if healthy attain a good six inches in length, and they can easily eat linear tetra.  Having said that, when the fish "grow up together," this sometimes does not occur.  I think Akasha has some experience with this.
 
Byron.

 
Indeed. My angels grew up with several small fish and all is well. I had black neons when they were young (the last one of the group died just a couple of weeks ago) It is well known that angels prey on neons in the wild and we normally wouldn't advise keeping the two together but it can work when the angels are added as babies and the small fish are already there. They see them as 'family' and not 'food'. Currently my angel pair live with 9 harlequins and 3 otocinclus. They chases the harlequins away from their territory but they've never tried to eat them. As for the oto's, there has been horrible stories of angels trying to eat them and the oto's extending their barbed fins wedging themselves in the angels mouth. The end result it the loss of both fish. It is something that concerns me but so far we're good. The angels havn't even noticed the oto's and they've been together for 18 months now
 

Off topic, but did anyone else think of the "Fish are friends, not food" scene from Finding Nemo here? XD
 
Also, I thought that angels were like most other cichlids, in that keeping them singly was an option?
Are they special cases?

 

[Akasha72]

nope, but now you mention it .... lol Mine Mine Mine Mine lol
 
Angels can be kept singly - indeed that if often what happens if a mate dies as the chances of an angel allowing another angel into it's territory are zero. An angel will see the entire tank as it's territory aswell. There are some cases where an angel will allow another angel in to the tank but only if the tank has been completely moved around and re-arranged in order to break up it's territory but these cases seem to be fairly rare

 

[nortonmad213]

hi, i was just wondering what temperature your tank is at if you say the angels are staying at the back by the heater perhaps the water is too cold?

 

[BaylorPerez]

angelfish tend to prefer a Ph of 6.7-6.9
Tetras as i have 7 of them, can do atleast a Ph of 6.5 and no more than a Ph of 7.6 ive tested with some tetras as i have 2 black-finned tetras and 2 striped tetras.
 
As for water tempture try to keep it at a even 76-77 degress F.
 
and for angelfish they tend to hide alot, so get plants that can grow quickly to allow hiding spots, or get some decor thats big enough for them to hide in I.E( half log )

 

[carmstrong]

Hey guys/gals..
I actually raised the temp on the tank a couple days ago to just under 80 degrees (77-78) and since then they have been motoring all around the tank.
I lost 1 Cardinal yesterday for an unknown reason so I'm taking him back to Petsmart to get another. I lost three in total since they were purchased less than two weeks ago. The other 7 look good.

 

[nortonmad213]

its a shame about your cardinal but im glad about your angels.

 

[Akasha72]

good news. Turns out they were just cold lol I hope they continue to pick up

 

[carmstrong]

its a shame about your cardinal but im glad about your angels.

 
 

good news. Turns out they were just cold lol I hope they continue to pick up

 
Yea, i'm happy they are doing well! Such beautiful animals, i'm excited to see their little personalities.
 
Hopefully the rest of the Cardinals will be ok, i hear they are finicky little things.
 
You guys think that some Peppered Cory's would be good tank mates for the Angels?
I hear yes online, but there are lots of opinions out there. 
 
I was thinking of getting 4-5 and perhaps another 5 Cardinals to have a fully stocked tank.
 
What are some of your experiences with those?

 

[Akasha72]

cories are fine with angels and tetra's but they might struggle in hard water. The best place to research cories is planet catfish and that might be a good place to head to to see if there are any cories that prefer harder water

forgot to say - cories also need to be kept on a sand substrate

 

[Jeremy180]

 

its a shame about your cardinal but im glad about your angels.

 
 

good news. Turns out they were just cold lol I hope they continue to pick up

 
Yea, i'm happy they are doing well! Such beautiful animals, i'm excited to see their little personalities.
 
Hopefully the rest of the Cardinals will be ok, i hear they are finicky little things.
 
You guys think that some Peppered Cory's would be good tank mates for the Angels?
I hear yes online, but there are lots of opinions out there. 
 
I was thinking of getting 4-5 and perhaps another 5 Cardinals to have a fully stocked tank.
 
What are some of your experiences with those?
 

In proper (IE not stunted) conditions, angels can more often than not attain 6 inches in length
Accordingly, from what I've read,  the minimum size tank for a single healthy adult angelfish in a community is 29 gal, for a pair it's 55 gal.
And that minimum obviously goes up even more if you decide to use the "Get 6 and let them pair" method.
Also, minimum tank depth Adult for angels is about 18", as these are tall fish.
Other than that, I see no real problems with your stocking, although I will Mention that Panda Cories do have a somewhat smaller adult size, and thus bioload, than speckled cories.
With regards to your PH, farm-raised fish, tend to be a bit more tolerant of less than Ideal water chemistry. (than wild-caught fish)

 

[carmstrong]

Ya. The Angels will be graduated into a larger tank once I have the space. The plan when I buy my home this year is to build a new tank. Sizing will be determined by the size of the home but I'm thinking anywhere from 55-125gal

My tank I have, even tho it is long, is fortunately 18.5" in height. So they should be happy over the next few months until they are movies into a larger tank.

As for the cory's, I have sand substrate so we are good there.

My area where I live has very hard water so I can imagine all fish that is bread here is tolerable to that.

That's great advice on the Panda Cory, good to know that they won't get too big. I'm guessing the peppered may be the same?

I'll check out that website you mentioned

Thanks everyone!

 

[Akasha72]

peppered cories are twice the size of panda cories so if you are limited to space panda's might be a better choice