Normal angelfish behaviour or problematic aggression?

[redmare]

Hi fish friends! I'm joyously getting a resurgence of my love for my aquariums after about a year of being really backed off. This is mainly due to my two angels. I had two separate 29 gallon tanks, each with one angel (and other stuff) and in an effort to try and reduce the number of tanks I have, I put both of them together to see what would happen. It's been SO FASCINATING! When I first moved Wanda (the silver female, about 1.5 years old) in to join Kevin (orange male, 3 years old), he bossed her around and kept her hidden in a corner for a few days. Not long after, though, Wanda decided she was really in charge and started bossing Kevin all around! They were generally getting along pretty well, I think it had been about two months, and then they spawned for the first time which was just so neat to see! They looked like they finally teamed up.. although after one solid day of carefully waving over and maintaining their eggs, Wanda decided she was going to eat them, which Kevin took great offence to. He kept trying to chase her away and stop her from eating them. This was about two weeks ago, and now they've spawned for a second time yesterday. Today, Wanda is just absolutely terrorizing poor Kevin, who just wants to fan his eggs! Is this beyond normal angelfish behaviour, and should it be concerning? I'm actually in the process of setting up my Oscar's outgrown 75 gallon (she lives the good life in a 180 now) with the intent to replace both my 29s with it and give these angels more space because watching them has been my favourite thing in fishkeeping in a long time. Will the increase in space be helpful? Do I need more angels to balance them out? 

Here's the video of them- sorry the quality is so poor, I'm not quite sure how that happened, but you should be able to see what's going on. All the eggs are laid on one of those big anubias leaves, the flat one on the left. The tank also is home to 8-10 pristella tetras, I believe 7 corydoras (3 pandas and 4 mystery LFS unlabeled ones), a longfin bristlenose pleco, and a few spare endler's that somehow jumped into this tank. Once I've got everyone settled into the big tank, I want to finally follow a dream of having a big rummynose school! I've never had a community tank bigger than a 29 gallon so I'm super excited for the possibilities. 

It's been a hot minute since I've been around the fish forums so I apologize if I'm missing obvious information that would help answer my question. Also worth noting that I really don't have plans to raise any fry, so if they do actually hatch some eggs and get them past hungry-endler-mama-mouth size, I may pick a few pretty ones to move into the big tank and the rest can go... make friends with my 14" Oscar. I'm sure she'll be very nice to them. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Dang, Wanda is the definition of “cichlids gonna cichlid”. I have 2 pairs of Angels, one basically by themselves, and the other pair in a 55 gallon community tank. In the community tank, they obviously get a little aggressive when guarding their eggs, but not like Wanda! She’s crazy, lol. 
 

My recommendation would be to add a piece of slate and cross your fingers that they spawn there. That way you can easily remove the eggs, and hopefully calm down the aggression. Mine have slate and Amazon Sword leaves. If they choose a Sword leaf it’s easy enough to pull that off, too. A big ol’ Anubias leaf on the other hand…
 

Also, what’s the temp in the tank? Turning the heat down a couple degrees could also help them chill out a bit, and not spawn every couple weeks. Both of which could help chill them out. 
 

I have 8 Angels in total and ya they get feisty, but mine have never darted at anyone (their mate, or the others in the community tank) like Wanda in that video. They’ll shake their head, flare their fins, and maybe a slight nip, but that Wanda rocket move is something else 😂

Edited August 7 by AllFishNoBrakes

[redmare]

On 8/7/2024 at 1:08 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Dang, Wanda is the definition of “cichlids gonna cichlid”. I have 2 pairs of Angels, one basically by themselves, and the other pair in a 55 gallon community tank. In the community tank, they obviously get a little aggressive when guarding their eggs, but not like Wanda! She’s crazy, lol. 
 

My recommendation would be to add a piece of slate and cross your fingers that they spawn there. That way you can easily remove the eggs, and hopefully calm down the aggression. Mine have slate and Amazon Sword leaves. If they choose a Sword leaf it’s easy enough to pull that off, too. A big ol’ Anubias leaf on the other hand…
 

Also, what’s the temp in the tank? Turning the heat down a couple degrees could also help them chill out a bit, and not spawn every couple weeks. Both of which could help chill them out. 
 

I have 8 Angels in total and ya they get feisty, but mine have never darted at anyone (their mate, or the others in the community tank) like Wanda in that video. They’ll shake their head, flare their fins, and maybe a slight nip, but that Wanda rocket move is something else 😂

Thanks for the input! Wanda is really just on another level. The funny thing, too, is when she was on her own she was basically lethargic. She wasn't very interested in what was happening outside her tank, and she never chased her endler tankmates. Just sort of... existed. 

The temp is only 76F, which I would've thought was low enough to keep them a little more easygoing. 

[Tony s]

Reminds me of my male marble. I had 6 in a 75g with 2 pairs. One pair was mild. The marbled pair were not. My male would turn sideways and go after anything on his side of the tank. Kept the other angels backed into a corner. Even kept praecox rainbows on the bottom of the tank. Needless to say that pair is in a solo breeding tank now. They just haven’t had any success in the new tank. 
 

but breeding can make angels just nuts.

[Tlindsey]

On 8/7/2024 at 12:30 PM, redmare said:

Hi fish friends! I'm joyously getting a resurgence of my love for my aquariums after about a year of being really backed off. This is mainly due to my two angels. I had two separate 29 gallon tanks, each with one angel (and other stuff) and in an effort to try and reduce the number of tanks I have, I put both of them together to see what would happen. It's been SO FASCINATING! When I first moved Wanda (the silver female, about 1.5 years old) in to join Kevin (orange male, 3 years old), he bossed her around and kept her hidden in a corner for a few days. Not long after, though, Wanda decided she was really in charge and started bossing Kevin all around! They were generally getting along pretty well, I think it had been about two months, and then they spawned for the first time which was just so neat to see! They looked like they finally teamed up.. although after one solid day of carefully waving over and maintaining their eggs, Wanda decided she was going to eat them, which Kevin took great offence to. He kept trying to chase her away and stop her from eating them. This was about two weeks ago, and now they've spawned for a second time yesterday. Today, Wanda is just absolutely terrorizing poor Kevin, who just wants to fan his eggs! Is this beyond normal angelfish behaviour, and should it be concerning? I'm actually in the process of setting up my Oscar's outgrown 75 gallon (she lives the good life in a 180 now) with the intent to replace both my 29s with it and give these angels more space because watching them has been my favourite thing in fishkeeping in a long time. Will the increase in space be helpful? Do I need more angels to balance them out? 

Here's the video of them- sorry the quality is so poor, I'm not quite sure how that happened, but you should be able to see what's going on. All the eggs are laid on one of those big anubias leaves, the flat one on the left. The tank also is home to 8-10 pristella tetras, I believe 7 corydoras (3 pandas and 4 mystery LFS unlabeled ones), a longfin bristlenose pleco, and a few spare endler's that somehow jumped into this tank. Once I've got everyone settled into the big tank, I want to finally follow a dream of having a big rummynose school! I've never had a community tank bigger than a 29 gallon so I'm super excited for the possibilities. 

It's been a hot minute since I've been around the fish forums so I apologize if I'm missing obvious information that would help answer my question. Also worth noting that I really don't have plans to raise any fry, so if they do actually hatch some eggs and get them past hungry-endler-mama-mouth size, I may pick a few pretty ones to move into the big tank and the rest can go... make friends with my 14" Oscar. I'm sure she'll be very nice to them. 

Wow pretty intense. I grin when people state the Angelfish is peaceful lol.