# What do you think of Angelfish?



## jadaBlu (Feb 14, 2013)

I happen to pass a tank of angelfish in a local fish show recently and it they got me to stop. As soon as they say me they turned toward me simultaneously and were very attentive. It gave me a good giggle to have all of these eyes focus on me and everything I did. I have always thought of them as persnickety, sensitive, nippy and hard to take care of. They sure were cute though.

What is it like taking care of angelfish?


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

I've always loved angels. All the ones I've owned have always been friendly and curious towards me. The current group I have are always hanging around the syphon tube trying to peck at the debris it's picking up when I do water changes. Whenever I walk up to their tank they crowd over to the front and wiggle around begging for food. Yes, they have different personalities and can bicker with one another but my current group gets along fine although they are still a bit young.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

I went to a lfs to get gold rams several months back and ended up walking out with an angelfish instead (no rams there and this fish was being bullied by a larger angel). My husband ended up naming the fish, first time he saw it (apparently he was hungry) he said "Carmel, yum yum!" as her orange/brown/tan markings looked a bit like caramel apparently. The name stuck so she's CarmelYumYum. After quarantine the little one went into my 20g long (originally meant for rams) and hung out with my cherry barbs and otos. After getting the 55g setup as a riparium i moved the angel and 20g fish over, my older Madagascar rainbowfish stayed in the 55 with them and I added false juli cory. Now people say angels will eat smaller fish as they get big enough to but those raised with small fish usually won't eat *those* fish. Carmel has not gobbled any otos yet and she's big enough now to try (though she'd probably choke to death). As a solo angel in the tank she's not aggressive (but definitely a food hog!!) and very attentive when someone is by the tank. She's pecked my hand trying to rush to grab food once, and i've only managed to 'pet' her long dorsal once but thats it. The tank has 6 otos, 8 cory and 11 i think cherry barbs.. no eggs or fry have ever been spot.. well except nerite eggs (i wish she could eat those).. forgot to mention the 2 nerites.. I think (85% sure) CarmelYumYum has eaten all the pond/bladder snails but doesn't bother the nerites and can't get the Malaysian trumpet snails (they have a 'trap door').. she'll eat anything that goes in the tank, not picky at all, frozen or live, pellet or flake, even algae wafers and this green gel (for the otos) and the blanched veggies. She doesn't chase anyone away from food to get it, but most move out of the way since she's the biggest thing in there. There's been no special treatment for the angel, just treat her like another community fish and she's done fine. I'd consider bettas more "persnickety" than angels. Shes not nippy or chasy or anything really just another fish. I do nothing special for water treatment (all fish and shrimp live with my tap or I don't keep them) my pH is 7.5 and I have very hard water. I don't even baffle water flow, I use a HUGE canister filter on the 55 (had a large pleco in there before with so much poop it clogged the thing!) doesn't bother the angel or impede her mobility around the tank.
I'd say if you're just keeping one its no issue in a community tank,but keeping 2 or more you start dealing with the cichlid aggression/dominant vrs non dominant aspect and the fun of a mated pair defending one side of the tank to lay eggs in.


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## rubbie5837 (Dec 22, 2014)

I had a pair of Angel fish, and my male was king of the tank. As long as everyone else remembered that, everyone was peaceful. But after quite a few years, slowly, the majority of my tetras passed away, and my male became aggressive with my remaining fish. It was down to him (Arnold Finzenegger), Angel (my female Angel) and my cory (captain). Arnold started attacking Angel and she ended up dying. Then he started going after captain and ultimately killed him. Then Arnold lived for a couple of years by himself before dying.


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## CustardCatfish (Apr 27, 2015)

I'd recommend getting a small school of them at once and get them young. There is less of a risk with aggressiveness. Kinda like a sorority!


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## Stone (Jan 6, 2013)

I have 5 marbled angels 3 females 2 males and they are pretty tough fish, with all my attempts of having a med/high tech tank they survived treatments for all sorts of algae issues and of course about 10 rescapes of the tank. They do have turf wars because they have paired up leaving the one female mateless, but she gets to hang with one group or the other with little to no issues. One pair has the left side of the tank the other the right side and the lone female is usually towards the middle but will hang out with either pair at times, the only time it gets a bit crazy is when one of the pairs spawns, they they get a bit crazy about protecting their side of the tank, there are cories, ottos, black skirted tetras, tigerbarbs, skunk loaches, a bristle nose pleco, hill stream loaches and some syndontis catish in the tank the angels pretty much ignore them unless they have spawned and they get too close. I have not seen them eat any of the fish and they are all still in there been this way for about a year but I do have plenty of hiding spots and plants. Some might say mytank is a bit over stocked, but I have about 8x the filtration I need and tons of plants and since I have gone low tech I do not add ferts so the plants gobble up the up the bad stuff. I rarely do an actual water change maybe about 20% once every six weeks or so and that more about getting the dissolved organic matter out of the tank vs water quality. The tank does not have a lid so I do have to add about 5 gallons a week due to evap.I really had no intent on having angels but I rescued the first one form someone who was keeping her in a 10 gallon tank so yeah of course I bought 4 more to keep her company. They are all very friendly to me and are always begging for food when they see me with their little wiggle display they do.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Well my lone female hit sexual maturity rights about the time I redid the hardscape and laid a bunch of eggs on an intake then got all [censor] and protective.. After 2-3 days I was sick of the attitude and used a tooth brush to knock all the eggs off then siphoned them up. Next day she was back to normal. Usulally Angels eat unfertlized eggs in first 24 or so hours, she didn't.. But it was her fist time. At least I know 100% she's a she now ^^


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## Nismo83 (May 9, 2015)

Altum would b nice


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Nismo83 said:


> Altum would b nice


I love the look of them but not the pH, I can't get my water that acidic >.<
Silvers are a nice 'alternative' but not as pretty.


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## Irish Eyes (May 19, 2015)

jadaBlu said:


> I happen to pass a tank of angelfish in a local fish show recently and it they got me to stop. _*As soon as they say me they turned toward me simultaneously and were very attentive. It gave me a good giggle to have all of these eyes focus on me and everything I did*_. I have always thought of them as persnickety, sensitive, nippy and hard to take care of. They sure were cute though.
> 
> What is it like taking care of angelfish?


I'm guessing they were hoping you were bringing them their daily meal .

I've raised hundreds of angelfish. Or, should I say, my pairs did :roll:. Sold the babies to a local fish shop for years. I would raise up to 12 angels in a 100 gallon tank at a time. Eventually, some would pair up and start defending territory. At that point, the pair would go into their own 20 gallon tank. Once they produced eggs, I covered the front and sides of the aquariums with a black cover (they like their privacy, and will sometimes eat eggs or fry if they feel like they're in a "zoo"). I'd peek in at feeding time in the evenings to check on how they were doing. Once the babies were too big to eat (about the size of a dime or nickel), they'd either go in the big 100 gallon aquarium with other angelfish until the fish store was ready for them, or they'd go straight to the fish store. Parents were separated for 2 or 3 months, afterwards, otherwise they kept producing eggs without stopping. I was worried about them wearing themselves out. I never had problems putting them back together. I don't know if that's normal, or if I was simply lucky, but considering that I usually had 3 or 4 breeding pairs going at any point, and none of them had problems with being separated and put back together, I guess they must have remembered each other.

I love angelfish, but I don't keep any right now. None of my habitats is big enough, and all of them have bettas in them. Cichlids and Bettas simply don't go together .


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## Nismo83 (May 9, 2015)

Aqua Aurora said:


> I love the look of them but not the pH, I can't get my water that acidic >.<
> Silvers are a nice 'alternative' but not as pretty.


U can use peat moss grandular to get lower pH is very effective. I used them for my red Arowana in the past. Red Arowana prefer pH of about 5.


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