# Will angelfish eat harlequin rasboras?



## Nue

I put 8 neons in with my angels. I think they thought they were food, and killed half of them. Now they live peaceful together. But i would never risk it again.


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## macclellan

Based on size, they'd eat them. Try a high-bodied tetra.


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## fishsandwitch

I have to disagree with macclellan.
Even the largest angels shouldnt be able to eat harlequins. They are just a little to tall as far as shape to be eaten by angels IMO
Also, adult carinals should be find with all but the very most massive angels, and adult neons will be good with most normal sized angels that are not really agressive


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## 9am53

I have a large angel that has been living with a single cardinal for about 2 years now happily. I added 6 more cardinals last night and 3 were gone in 5 minutes. What I did was take a tupperware, poke holes in it, and put it in the tank with no lid like a floating shark cage (the plastic floats) then I put the remaining 3 cardinals in there and they are aclimated and their colour is back now. I think I will wait for a week or 2 like this to hopefully get them a little bigger, and let the angel get used to them being there, and then let them out behind my amazon swords so the angel doesn't associate them with food. I find when I approach the tank my angel gets hungry, so if I release the cardy's behind the swords and walk away the angel might forget about being hungry and leave them alone.

P.S. I have added harley's to this tank before and the angel sniffed at them but never ate one.


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## blackandyellow

I added a group of neons when my angels were quarter size and they got along perfect. Now that they are 4" long whenever I add a new small fish to the tank they will try to eat them, but they still leave alone the neons that grew with them.

Last small fish I added were a group of 3 ottos and they had a hard time with the angels, but after a couple of days they "accepted" them and now ignore them.

I am happy to say I was successful in adding a group of 10 serpae tetras with my angels and they have been excellent company despite the fame of fin nippers. The como looks gorgeous, but I guess my large tank and heavy planting are responsible for this success.

I "adopted" a single left alone rosy tetra from a LFS and I think those are very peaceful and are larger than the traditional neon, so they would make a good company for angels


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## cjp999

9am53 said:


> I have a large angel that has been living with a single cardinal for about 2 years now happily. I added 6 more cardinals last night and 3 were gone in 5 minutes.


I also have had a single cardinal in with my Angel for over a year now. I'm about to add 12 more, some of them rather small. Maybe I should only add the bigger ones first.

What I find is that any smallish creature I add to the tank peaks the interest of my angel, but he appears to be a pretty lame hunter, and eventually loses interested after failed attempts. This was the case with some kuhli loaches I added, and also ghost and amano shrimp. I also have a couple of mollies that were very small when first added, and survived. If they can escape once or twice when approached, then the angel loses interest.


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## hl0107

Mine did!!!
I put 8 harlequin with my group of angels and they kill 4 of them in minutes. The angels corner the harlequin and start attacking them. We saved the rest and put the them on other aquarium.


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## jdrawe

A little more information to help everyone answer.... My angelfish is ~4" from his nose to the base of his tail and has not grown any larger in years. He is somewhat aggressive toward the other angelfish in the tank, but not towards any of the other fish. The smallest ones I have now are orange von rio tetras and otos, he hasn't shown interest in them... but I know the harlequins are a bit smaller.


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## blackandyellow

Maybe if you put the harlequins late at night with the lights off, so the Angels will not notice them much, then by the next day they might ignore them.


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## kpfeffer

Angels are savages. I put 22 rummy nose tetras (1 1/4" long) in with my 8 angels that are about 2" body size. Went out for dinner and returned 3 hours later to 19 dead tetras. The thing you have going for you is that you have a 55 gallon tank which should provide a lot of room to escape. My angels are in a 60 gal hex.

Kirk


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## BruceWatts

I used to go to a lfs in Orange County and they had a sign on the wall: "If a fish is big enough to eat another fish, it will".

After hearing all the people state that new additions are attacked and killed by angles I can't really think why anyone would try it with new small fish. To me it just seams needlessly cruel. 

Bruce


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## F22

BruceWatts said:


> I used to go to a lfs in Orange County and they had a sign on the wall: "If a fish is big enough to eat another fish, it will".
> 
> After hearing all the people state that new additions are attacked and killed by angles I can't really think why anyone would try it with new small fish. To me it just seams needlessly cruel.
> 
> Bruce


 
great quote... i wanna work in that shop...

but yea, i gotta agree with you.


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## jdrawe

Thanks for everyone's helpful answers... I just wanted to know what other people's experiences were.


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## blackandyellow

In general cichlids are smart fish with differing temperaments and even personalities. It´s funny how some Angels leave alone other small fish while others eat them. Guess it´s a trial and error thing. with most other fish species temperament is always easy to predict (i.e. nippy tetras, peaceful cories, etc.)

I actually love my Angels´ differing personalities and as much as I love the look of my serpae tetras, they are boring after a minute. The angels just looks at you and follow all over the tank, flare to each other, have interesting breeding behaviours... I love cichlids and am happy that at least a couple species are compatible in planted tanks.

Anyone who keeps dwarf cichlids can also attest to their very interesting behaviors, and the large Central American specias are just incredible fish! too bad they tear up planted tanks


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## supaflyz

Whatever you do don't add the angel fish with small tetras! I was in the same situation was u! I had like 9 wild discus, 70 cardinal, and about 40 harlequin. AFter 3 years I have 3 harlequin left. I'm thinking of selling the angelfish. They bullied the discus, and kill all my tetras and shrimps. I did research just like u before and a lot of people said angelfish get along well with small tetras. Well they did for like the first few months. Then after that they start eating my tetras at night. Well I never caught them, but the tetras never floated to the water.


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## kdogg

angels are predators I have four 1 1/2 inch bodied angels that are picking the eyes out of my whiptail cats. If it moves they will try and eat it. Bit by bit or in one quick swallow.


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## fishyjoe24

angels will eat small fish, I've had domistic angelfish and wild fish, i've tried it and it does work, they at neons and shrimp. now i'm down to a breeding pair of angelfish, and 2 paired koi angelfish that i think are a male/female but no eggs. cardinals are a natural snack out in the wild for angelfish. what i have learn if the shrimp/small fish will fit in the angels mouth it will become food for the angelfish. i've even seen guppies become food to angelfish.


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## supaflyz

yeah dont judge any fish mouth size on what they can consume or not. If I only knew this before buying them. Wasted almost a 1k on fish alone all 9 discus died, and all my tetras except 3 died. Angelfish are best kept with their own kind.


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## emmetman26

I was actually thinking of doing the same thing with harlequins, but I would be adding in the angels, not adding the harlequins as they are already in my tank. I have a 40 breeder and my harlequins are of decent size so I'm going to try it and I'll tell you what happens unless you were add your fish before i add mine.


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## Nordic

An angel is not going to eat a fully grown harlequin (or cardinal). The trick is to grow the harlequins out on their own first.
If the angels are not used to other fish, they may be aggressive regardless. I grow my juvie angels out with juvenile swordtails, danios and platys and some tetras, and never have problems of them chasing other fish as they grow out,


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## redavalanche

I always get a kick out of this topic when it comes up. The Angel fish has a deceptive name and with all that grace in the water they are still one heck of a hunter IMO.

Shop around. The Rasbora is a good choice but find some on the larger side. For instance a shop that charges more will likely have some larger ones whereas the bargain shop will have small ones that sell out quickly.


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## roadmaster

Nordic said:


> An angel is not going to eat a fully grown harlequin (or cardinal). The trick is to grow the harlequins out on their own first.
> If the angels are not used to other fish, they may be aggressive regardless. I grow my juvie angels out with juvenile swordtails, danios and platys and some tetras, and never have problems of them chasing other fish as they grow out,


 Have to disagree with can't/wont.
Healthy,
Adult Angelfish capable of getting as big as a man's hand with finger's outstretched could easily eat smaller cardinal or rasbora as some above have attested to.I have raised Angelfish also.
Have personally witnessed the Angelfish take neon's,cardinal's,live cricket's,chunk's of night crawler's, and krill .
Bleeding heart tetra's,Colombian tetra's,Lemon tetra's could work.
The OP's fish if not larger than four inches after year's as mentioned,indicates a possible stunted fish which maybe could not eat mature rasbora or small bodied tetra as easily as a larger specimen .


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## aquariumhobbyist

roadmaster said:


> Have to disagree with can't/wont.
> Healthy,
> Adult Angelfish capable of getting as big as a man's hand with finger's outstretched could easily eat smaller cardinal or rasbora as some above have attested to.I have raised Angelfish also.
> Have personally witnessed the Angelfish take neon's,cardinal's,live cricket's,chunk's of night crawler's, and krill .
> Bleeding heart tetra's,Colombian tetra's,Lemon tetra's could work.
> The OP's fish if not larger than four inches after year's as mentioned,indicates a possible stunted fish which maybe could not eat mature rasbora or small bodied tetra as easily as a larger specimen .


Just wanted to add to raodmaster's comment on stunted fish with something from my own experience. I had an angel with stunted growth too. It became the smallest one in the group of 4 that I bought. Two of the angels paired off and constantly picked on this little guy and another larger one. Somehow, the larger one started getting the brunt of the assault from the pair and a couple weeks later, they spawned. Anyway, this little guy figured out that there were guppy fry in between the floating plants above and, I kid you not, in less than a month experienced a growth sprint bringing it to the same size as the male in the pair. Then, it turned the tide on the pair, killing the male first then the female. I guess it kept a grudge. Anyway, now all the angels in my tank are dead, except this guy. Now, he bullied a pearl gourami to death and is after the other one (even though the gouramis did nothing to it when it was little), signalling to me that it is time to depose of this tyrannical dictator and bring democracy and peace back into my tank... 

So, even though the angel is stunted in growth now, it may grow suddenly and my experience has been that they take out their slow growth on the other fish in the tank.


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