How to keep angels from killing each other???

[fatfutures]

Finally scored another large angel! YEAH! "he's" been in the tank now for over a week... He's just a bit smaller than my other one. The first few days the new guy was constantly picking on the old guy. Well, that table has turned! Old guy is kicking new guys' ass! Well... not his ass per se... but, he is doing a number on his eyes! Constantly picking at him all over...

New guy spends a lot of time trying to hide...

Is there anything I can do to help insure his survival?

THANKS!

[ElijahTurtle]

Rearranging everything in the tank will help. This will reset the angels "territory" & will allow both angels to establish new territories. This will cut down on the aggression but not eliminate it completely. Untill a pecking order is accepted there is likely to be some scuffling anyhow.

[fatfutures]

Thanks! The re-arrangement won't be pretty...but, that's WAY better than a dead fish!

[ElijahTurtle]

Let us know how it goes.
Your other option is to take either the big one or both out for about a week & reintroduce them. But that would require another tank to hold them. Rearranging just makes more sense as a first step.

[fatfutures]

Yeah, I don't have another tank suitable to move one to.

If rearranging doesn't work... would putting a few small "decoy" fish work? Something cheap that they could ummmm...beat up on instead of each other?

[ElijahTurtle]

Not likely, but it might be worth a try. When my angels go at it they ignore everyone else.

[fatfutures]

Well, as soon as I finish payroll, I'm going to redecorate the tank... add a few "extra" pieces... Hopefully they will settle down soon. I'd REALLY hate to lose either of them.

[fishyjoe24]

buy some driftwood and make hiding spots for the one getting picked on.

[lellison]

Mine have been in a terrible mood lately as well. Do as suggested and let us know how it goes. Angels can get very territorial with age, and some down right pissy. lol. Anyways I would also suggest the tank rearrangement to start with. Let us know how it goes :)

[fatfutures]

Well, rearranging helped a bit. Slowed the big guy down some anyway... I'm going to move everything around again this morning. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks everybody!

[fatfutures]

YEAH! I think everyone is going to live! Rearranging the tank helped and then I added two boesmani that I picked up at JFP on Sat. I think the combo did the trick...

ACK! I spoke too soon... just glanced over at the tank. New guy is back to attacking old guy! Sheeeeeeeeesh!

I need to get busy and clear out the 55 and get these guys moved... hopefully that will help. Or, someone will have to be rehomed!

[ElijahTurtle]

What size tank are they in now? Moving to a 55G would be good. It would be pretty easy to create 2 separate treeitories in that tank. You probably have 2 males if there is that much fighting going on. Even with no females in the tank, they will go at it to stake their claim.
Got any pics of them?

[fatfutures]

They are in a 30. The plan is when I get rid of the oscar and pink convicts I'm going to move these "guys" to the 55. Problem is... no one wants the big guys.

Here they are:

Old guy
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1023/1068156903_f1ed1d90b8.jpg

New guy
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1340/1443410860_5e4b99ec1f.jpg

Not a great picture of new guy... I just took it, and they are all running at the glass looking for food! I've always loved my angel... very friendly!

[fishyjoe24]

so how is the fish doing now? i hope my angels that i just bought don't fight i got them all from the same tank. yes i've decided to do angel fish not discus my friend mike talked to me about discus and what i all needed to do and it was going to be to much trouble for me to have discus.

[fatfutures]

Joey, they are doing much better now. There is still some bickering but, it's no where near as bad as it was at first. I figured taht there would be some fighting if I added another angel to the tank... That's why I made sure that I got one close to the same size as the first. I'm sure Old guy would have killed a smaller fish.

I think that with a tank as big as yours, you should be able to set up several different areas for the fish to claim as their territory. Probably be some fighting but, not that bad. It's also good that you got so many at once... My old guy had this tank pretty much to himself for a year and a half. He wasn't into sharing his space. LOL

[fishyjoe24]

thanks i plan on geting more in a few days.

[lellison]

Joey, they are doing much better now. There is still some bickering but, it's no where near as bad as it was at first.

Glad to hear they are doing better. Beautiful fish by the way.