fighting fish

[crazy angel]

Looking for advice. I have had my tropical tank for about a month now and started off with purchasing 2 breeding angel fish (they are about 3"). All was well and they were swimming round fine.

About 4 days after I added 4 black widows which i thought would be fine as they had came from a tank with other fish. For the past week the black widows and the black angel fish keep charging at the grey angel fish and have took chunks of his tail and fin. He also has red coloured base to his fins on the side. This is the first tropical tank I have had and they all seem to pick on this one angel fish, what shall I do he is staying on the surface of the water and looks like he is gasping for air I dont want him to get stressed.

HELP!!!!!!!

 

[Angel Lady]

how many angel fish do you have in your tank angels will fight each other if you have had your tank going for a month then you need to give some water readings like ammonia,nitrites the reason your fish is staying at the top of the water could be your tank hasnt fully cycled yet I can only keep one angel in each of my tanks due to fighting.

 

[CFC]

Sounds like the pair bond has broken down between your angelfish. Sometimes when a pair is moved the stress causes the bond to break down and the male (usually the stronger of the pair) will try to drive the female out of his territory. If you can then seperate the smaller fish either into a small quarentine tank or by using a divider in the main tank until the damage to its fins is repaired, then you can try to reintroduce the pair, if the fighting continues then you will need to add one or two new angelfish of the same time so the male can either beat on them and then in his victory either take back his original mate and spawn or pick a new mate from the new arivals, the left over angels will need to be removed to another tank or returned to the store.

Black widows are not suitable tankmates for angelfish as they are notorious fin nippers and the long flowing fins of the angelfish are just too tempting for them.