65 Gallon Angelfish Tank Help

[badpotato39]

Fish

 

So my wife and I have found ourselves in a bit of a weird position with a moderately planted 65 gallon tank containing two young angelfish…and that’s it. 

 

We are running an fx2 with a spray bar. We could also add an aqua clear 70 if needed. Lighting is a 36” easy plant led. Substrate is 60% sand and 40% smooth gravel. 

 

We for sure want more angelfish. From what I’ve read we should be able to have a total of 5-6.

 

The wife would also like a pleco of some kind (she just loves plecos).

 

So my questions:

 

1. Can our setup support 5-6 angelfish?
2. Can we have a pleco with angels? What kind would be best?
3. What other tank mates (if any) would be good with this setup? We’d like to avoid fish that will become snacks to grown angels.
4. Any other advice/words of wisdom?

Thanks!

[ChickenAndWaffle]

1. Your tank can easily support several full grown angelfish.

2. You can basically fit any pleco that stays at a manageable size in a 65 gallon. Bristlenose plecos are quite popular. There are a lot of bristlenose pleco variations, and they are easy to breed. You could also try rarer/exotic species (L134, Zebra, L333, L397, etc.)

3. Any fish that can't fit in an Angelfish's mouth and isn't a known fin knipper would be great tank mates. I personally like apistos, larger bodied tetras, corydoras, etc. I've personally had neon tetras eaten by my large angelfish.

4. For advice, I'd always recommend quarantining your fish.

Cheers!

[Lennie]

If you dont want to deal with potential aggression&pairs and setting up a new tank/rehoming the fish in the future, I would keep two angels instead of increasing the amount of angels to increase the chances of having a more peaceful tank. I also have two angels in my community tank. 

As long as you provide good enough hiding spaces, you can check many ancistrus and pleco species that don't grow a lot. You have plenty of options and I would go for the one that interests me instead of hearing specific suggestions. Just be careful of their sizes and temperature needs. With angelfish, you will have plenty of options that will enjoy similar temperatures. However, angelfish dont like current much. So in this regard, it may be a good idea to find a way to increase the oxygen content in the tank in case you wanna keep plecos/ancistrus. That being said, in my experience, I see my female bristlenoses quite a lot while male is mostly holding cave. Plecos usually tend to hide a lot. My L199 is never out. Maybe female bristlenose it is? 

 

I haven't seen an obvious problem but my black rams were never a fan of my angels. I like going for one specific type of cichlids usually in these sort of setups if the tank is not very big. Personal choice here, I like my cichlids on their own species tanks or as the only cichlid in their community tank.

I have 3 SAE, sterbai cories, rummynose tetras and gold gouramis with my angels.  Gourami species that are known to be more peaceful might be prefered, and golds arent known to be one of them usually. If you don't wanna mix American and Asian species I understand. Just a recommendation to not add more angels but something that is as beautiful, at least to me. Like 1m:3f pearl gouramis for example.

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I have a 55 Angelfish tank. Had 6 Angels, but I removed the pair of Pandas to their own tank. Currently growing out 2 of their kids to add back to the tank. Also has Albino Cory’s (that I hatched and raised), Cardinal Tetras, and a couple Dwarf Rainbows. 
 

I had some Bristlenose in the tank, but their constant rasping on the plants was destroying them, so they got moved to a different tank. Just know that possibility going into it. 
 

Know that if you get a group, you’ll most likely end up with at least one pair, and they can get pretty aggressive when they’re breeding. If you can handle that, then you should be good to go. They may be called “Angelfish”, but the name is deceiving. At the end of the day they’re cichlids and definitely display cichlid behavior when spawning. 
 

Reach out if you have any questions! I’m always happy to help. 

[Tanked]

You are in a good position for more angel fish.  I would suggest adding more while yours are young.  Your tank is large enough for them to get out of each others way when breeding behavior begins.  Mine have also proved to be territorial when the new angel arrives. After the hierarchy is established, everybody was peaceful.  So far at least, I haven't had any issues keeping them with plecos or any of the peaceful dither fish.

[badpotato39]

I appreciate all of the feeback!  After a trip to our LFS, we now have 5 juvenile angelfish and one blue eyed bristlenose.  We also added more taller decor to help break line of sight more often.  No aggression yet but I'm sure it's coming.  We also picked up a 14gallon cube but I'll make a different post for that one.