# One of my angelfish beat up the other, why?????



## LB79 (Nov 18, 2011)

That sounds like two males. I would give the one you like least to an LFS. It's usually better to get four or six angels and let them grow out together.


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## Imaginary1226 (Jul 27, 2010)

well I do have 5 smaller ones upstairs.....they are the siblings as well but I got them later and their growth was stunted. long story. I will.remove one if the males and put in the other angels and see what happens.


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

Get it out now. If you wait to long it might not be a very pretty outcome. I had a breeding pair fighting recently and I had to put them back in with my angel community. Now they are no longer fighting. Could you take the bully out and put it where the smaller angels are and put the smaller angel in the 55 with the beat up angel? Just make sure to keep the water crystal cleat and super clean to prevent infection.


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## Rich Conley (Jun 10, 2008)

Imaginary1226 said:


> They are siblings after all.


 This means absolutely nothing in the animal world. 


I don't mean to pick on you here, but shelters/vets/etc have all sorts of problems because people refuse to get animals spayed/neutered because "they're siblings, so we don't need to worry about that." Its a perception that really needs to go away.



And yeah, you're probably gonna need to seperate these fish.


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## Daximus (Oct 19, 2011)

Rich Conley said:


> This means absolutely nothing in the animal world.


Or West Virginia! (Sorry, I had too, lol)

I think adding a few more angels might help. With just two they seem to have a need to figure out who is the baddest. When you have a herd of them, 5 or 7, this seems to stop. I have 7 of them in my 90. Sure, they have spats and disagreements, but never to an extent that someone gets hurt. I don't know what cause more of them in a tank to chill out the herd...maybe they have A.D.D. This seems to work for me, breeding pairs notwithstanding.


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

Once they get of breeding age and start to pair they get cranky though. I have 7 in my 75 gallon. Have 2 breeding pairs and the others can't make up their mind. They all get along peacefully until they spawn. 

I have noticed that if you have more than just 2 angels in a tank (providing it's big enough) there are normally less fights. I've had 2 breeding pairs start to fight as it seems they get bored.

What is they size difference between the 2 that are fighting and the 5 smaller ones?


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

If it's spawning behavior and not just attitudes run wild you should see the tubes extended which is the only way to reliably sex angels. Tubes which appear sharp or pointed on the end like the sharp end of a pencil will be male fish. Tubes which are more cylindrical like the eraser of a pencil are female fish.

Battles causing physical damage have been rare here but I have lost fish. Both times (happened only twice) both were large females causing the damage. Separate the fish removing the aggressor is what I've done. If you have a tank with larger angelfish placing the aggressive one in with it sometimes works to break the behavior. 

Fish developing a nasty attitude don't last long here, it learns to calm down or leaves via the ice tea train.

HTH


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## SlammedDC2 (Jun 4, 2011)

I haven't had any problem with a larger number of angels. I currently have 11 in a 125g and don't really have more than a little peck here or there. None ever have any visable damage. It seems in the past that the only time I ever see any aggression is when I add new angels and they have to re-establish their pecking order.


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## Petrie (Dec 30, 2011)

I think it all depends on the fish, I've had angelfish community tanks and they've been peacefull and they've also been aggressive. I wouldn't leave a tank alone at the time so the setup was changing alot but theres really no way to know how angelfish are going to react. Things can be going good then one day BAM someones dead because one of the fish got in a bad mood. There usually seams to be a few of them that are more dominant in a tank and maybe that causes the fights. But still I've found fights with my most peacefull angels.

The key really is having somewhere to put angels, either a LFS of another tank.

I've never kept less then 4 in a tank together unless it was a mated pair so I can't advise on what to do with these two, although getting them seperate would be a good idea.


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## Imaginary1226 (Jul 27, 2010)

Rich Conley said:


> This means absolutely nothing in the animal world.
> 
> 
> I don't mean to pick on you here, but shelters/vets/etc have all sorts of problems because people refuse to get animals spayed/neutered because "they're siblings, so we don't need to worry about that." Its a perception that really needs to go away.
> ...


Really? I am not an idiot. I only mentioned it because they have been together such a long time and this has never happened before....I didn't think they would play nice just because they were related, sorry if that is the impression I gave. Some people are dumb and refuse to get animals in general spayed and neutered, sibling or not. I am not sure how this even applies to my situation at all? Oh but it is a fact that some animals, like horses, do prevent inbreeding amongst themselves. Obviously if I had this perception I wouldn't have posted my problem to begin with, because I am worried....


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## Imaginary1226 (Jul 27, 2010)

MochaLatte said:


> Once they get of breeding age and start to pair they get cranky though. I have 7 in my 75 gallon. Have 2 breeding pairs and the others can't make up their mind. They all get along peacefully until they spawn.
> 
> I have noticed that if you have more than just 2 angels in a tank (providing it's big enough) there are normally less fights. I've had 2 breeding pairs start to fight as it seems they get bored.
> 
> What is they size difference between the 2 that are fighting and the 5 smaller ones?


The two biggest ones are about 4x5 the 5 smaller ones are 3x4 ish I had them in a separate tank in hopes they would get a bit bigger before I put them in with the bigger two. They are much bigger now.


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## Imaginary1226 (Jul 27, 2010)

Thanks everyone for your advice. I am not sure if I should put the bully into the 40 gallon tank or the injured one? I would then put the 5 smaller ones in the 50 gallon with the remaining angel. I also remembered something interesting...the day he beat the other angel up I had done a water change earlier. So it is almost like it was water change induced aggression. I mean I know that can trigger fish to spawn but I guess it just made the one really territorial? I am not sure he isn't chasing him around anymore but if they are near each other the bully kinda nips at his side.


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