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1 Angel fish turned aggressive


Rewcolee1
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On 2/22/2023 at 6:28 PM, Rewcolee1 said:

I have 4 Angel fish in a 75g with other fish as well. Out of no where 1 of the Angel fish has turned on the other 3 and is winning. They were all purchased together around 8 months ago. Has anyone experienced this before? Any thoughts on next steps?

Angelfish become aggressive as they mature more. As a pecking order is set and territories are going to be established. Nothing you could do much about it but just removing the eye of sight with decorations to decrease some of that aggression. 

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Thanks for the input and I thought this may be the case as I’ve read a little here and there. Over the years I’ve never had a group of 4, only 2 at any given time. I guess we will see how it plays out. My plants are growing and maybe I’ll rearrange a little and that my help.

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Cichlids gonna cichlid! I have a group of 4 Angels in a 55 gallon. 3 males and 1 female. 
 

The most aggression I see is when the pair is about to spawn. Other than that, the males shimmy at each other and peck a little bit from time to time, but never anything crazy. 
 

When the pair at any given time (the female is scandalous and has paired with several of the males over the years) gets aggressive the others just hide a bit and have their own space. The tank has 2 big Amazon Swords and some Jungle Val so there’s lots of line of sight breaks and hiding places, and the tank being 4’ gives space for everyone. 
 

Hope this helps!

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If you got them about 8 months ago as juveniles, they are hitting the point where they could be wanting to spawn. Have you noticed the aggressive one being nicer or hanging close to another one in particular? It's possible that a pair is forming and the male is trying to drive away any competitors. Short of removing the one who is being the aggressor or if one is getting severely beat up, moving things in the tank or adding more plants or decor to allow the sub dominant ones to be able to hide, get out of eye sight of the dominant one. 

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I actually just watched a video Cory posted about this.

He said break up the space with plants, larger and taller plants. Add a large school of fish. It helps break up the territory and eventually the angel fish start to chill. 


Can you give us full tank pictures and more details? I would like to see the whole tank in one shot. 

This is his video. 

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On 2/23/2023 at 11:18 AM, Miska said:

I actually just watched a video Cory posted about this.

He said break up the space with plants, larger and taller plants. Add a large school of fish. It helps break up the territory and eventually the angel fish start to chill. 


Can you give us full tank pictures and more details? I would like to see the whole tank in one shot. 

This is his video. 

Extremely informative. Thanks!

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I would add a large rock structure with lots of plants on it in the center to give them a cover, and maybe in one corner another feature. I would also add more stem plants in the back for them to hide and go in and out of. And I would put some low bush plants in the front corner. 

I would also add a school of rummy noses or a school of cardinals (20+) (but any rasbora or tetra schoolers) and maybe remove the other bigger fish if the bio load would be too high.  They need lots of things to break up the scenery as well as more vegetation. Angels like big tall leafy things (and they may lay on them). 

But again, this is all according to my research, which has been mostly Cory, MD Tanks, Dan's Fish, and a couple of books. 

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On 2/24/2023 at 10:14 AM, Tanked said:

I'll second that!  Mine ensure that their home is free of Duckweed or any other living plant.

I have 3. Once 1 of them nibble on a plant the other 2 join in and the plant is gone. The Silver Dollars are 10yrs old and I’ve had them well before ever doing a live planted tank. I’ll just have to live with replacing the plants they destroy.

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On 2/24/2023 at 10:23 AM, Rewcolee1 said:

I have 3. Once 1 of them nibble on a plant the other 2 join in and the plant is gone. The Silver Dollars are 10yrs old and I’ve had them well before ever doing a live planted tank. I’ll just have to live with replacing the plants they destroy.

I still have a pair of 4 year old rescues.  It was suggested that I feed them supplemental vegetables to keep them off of the plants.  No Luck.  On the up side: They eat the trimmings from the other tanks, and any floating algae is also on the menu.

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On 2/22/2023 at 9:47 PM, Rewcolee1 said:

Thanks for the input and I thought this may be the case as I’ve read a little here and there. Over the years I’ve never had a group of 4, only 2 at any given time. I guess we will see how it plays out. My plants are growing and maybe I’ll rearrange a little and that my help.

The behavior depends heavily on sexs as well as individual fishes. I find females tend to be far more aggressive than males with male aggression more subtle and about pecking order but females can be quite mean and they have a forever memory of who they dislike. 

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