Angels Fighting or Bonding

[jonall]

Anyone proivide any insights into Angel behaviour would be appreciated.

About a month ago we added a new Angel Fish into a 5ft tank that housed another Angel for about 2 months prior, there was another Angel in the tank before which never showed any signs of fighting but it died with a hole in the head.

We replaced the Angel as soon as we found one of similar size around 4" but within 2-3 days of this Angel being introduced the lip locking and the darting towards each other started, The original Angel which i believed to be male seemed to be the one being bullied and chased and i think had a bite just behind its tail which seems to have healed up. I was unconcered until the damage was done and came close to returning the new angel, I decided to give it a few more days and now they seem have switched roles and the original Angel now definately has the upper hand. Sometimes they do swim side by side but every 30 minutes or so there seems to be fights and this has now been ongoing for 3 weeks or so

I dont want to have either fish injured or killed but would also like to think they may pair. If they were pairing should they have calmed down a little by now, If they are both male i would probably seperate them. I have tried reading peoples comments on the internet but there seems to be very little difference in two males fighting to a male female bonding.

 

[Tolak]

If they were just fighting the only time they might be tolerant of each other would be during feeding time. They wouldn't swim together at all. I've had major battles in tanks with some sort of truce being called while they eat.

Pairs will fight from time to time, I have one pair that starts fighting every time I turn the light on. Chase, nip, lip lock, after 5 or 10 minuites they calm down. They've been like that for more than a year now. Every day, same thing.

Sounds like you may have the beginning of a pair. The only sure way to tell male from female is when they spawn & you can see their breeding tubes. Pairs have been known to fight to the point where one is severly injured, or killed. Keep an eye on them, and keep a divider or another tank ready. Sometimes this happens during pairing, a common ocurance is after the spawn one of the pair guards the eggs, while one is intent on eating the eggs. Sometimes one of them goes psyco for no reason. Sounds like you have a good size tank, the addition of some plants or other decos to give one of them a pace to hide may help.

If you plan on raising the spawn, make sure you have plenty of tank space, or plan on culling severely.

Tolak