Angels Fish And Fighter Fish?

[deadlypoison]

Hello (oh boy its been a while)!!

My tank is thriving have had it over a year now and it is extremely happy.
i now have 7 mixed danios, 2 angel fish, 2 loaches and 1 peppered catfish.

i have had no luck with neon tetras or guppies - they breed and die and i end up pulling dead bodies stuck to my filter. (which i just remember needs cleaning *mental note*)

I would ADORE a fighter fish. when we had the larger tanks downstairs we had one in each tank, but we never had angel fish.

would my angel fish be a problem with a fighter fish?
mine seem quite placid and are more scared of the danios than the other way around, but would my angels be picking fights with the fighter or vice versa?

also as a side note... why of my two angel fish (I used to have three) is one noticably larger than the other? the same can be said of my loaches!

all help would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[Wills]

How big is the tank? To be honest I wouldnt call your fish thriving no offense I am just saying how it is IMO and I know its going well a year on but to call them thriving they should be kept as nature intended and in this case a lot of your fish need to be in groups of their own like the danios need to be all the same not mixed different danio are as different as a danio and a goldfish, the peppered catfish is probs a peppered cory and they need to be in groups idealy 6 but 3 or more is acceptable. Which type of loach are they? Again the loaches need about 5 or 6 of each - unless these are clown loaches which will need a very very big tank.

With the size differences - in loaches it is not uncommon for a dominant loach to form in a group and this will grow bigger but also the most subordinate will stay small as to not threaten - I experienced this with a large group of botia histronica where this happened in a group of 8 I had some 6 inch adults but some stayed 2 inch or a bit less! Though they were all from the same place and the same ages. I have also seen this in RBTS in a badly stocked tank where one was huge and fat and the other sub shark was noticeably smaller and much paler. With the angels I have not heard of this happening but if it is 2 males in the tank I could understand the behaviour?

Now to the fighting fish - mixing angels and fighters has mixed responses all the time often newbies take advice from LFS and get them both as starter fish and sometimes it works - though more experienced keepers would not try it due to the problems people have with these fish - each of them could cause equal damage to each other potentially and thats the problem. Personally I would not risk it if you have a happy community that has worked so far for a year I would say only add fish that you can be 100% with.

Hope thats helped - Also if we can get the tank size will answer a lot of questions

Wills

 

[MewMew42]

I personally would get a 5 gallon tank to keep a fighter in as he would be much happier in there!

I wouldnt want to risk eitehr of them getting hurt!

 

[deadlypoison]

getting another tank is out of the question i barely have space for the one i have!

its 2ft (wide) x 1ft (high) x 1ft (deep).

cant remember off hand how many gallons it holds.

the loaches are albinos i believe they were called, they're slightly pinky orange with red eyes. but off the top of my head i cant remember,
the danios love their little mixed group - most of them are fire rings and zebra stripe and i have 2 others that have little specks but arent fire rings.

the angel fish are a little weird, i had three and one disappeared... *cough* no body was ever found, and now the two that are left are... they wannabe in a group but if i put more in they attack the new ones and kill them. *shrugs* they're happy with any other fish though (i am never having neons or guppies again)

i do agree i need a couple more peppereds, a few weeks after i got the cat fish (about 5 months after the tank was up) one of them died, the other one was fine though, so i have no idea if it got teratorial. (sp?)

edit: was gonna ask... how do you tell male and female angels apart?

 

[arobinson1984]

The tank isnt big enough for the angel fish to grow properly, they normally reach between 6-8" in height and require a minimum tank height of 18" not including the gravel so at only a foot high its not enough. Ideally angels need 2ft high tanks but can and will live ok in 18"

Fighter fish (bettas) wouldnt work with an angel as the angel fish would rip the bettas tail to shreds. Bettas arent recommended community fish, each one has their own temperament, some will live fine in a community tank whereas another will just attack all other tank mates.

Andy

 

[deadlypoison]

The tank isnt big enough for the angel fish to grow properly, they normally reach between 6-8" in height and require a minimum tank height of 18" not including the gravel so at only a foot high its not enough. Ideally angels need 2ft high tanks but can and will live ok in 18"

Fighter fish (bettas) wouldnt work with an angel as the angel fish would rip the bettas tail to shreds. Bettas arent recommended community fish, each one has their own temperament, some will live fine in a community tank whereas another will just attack all other tank mates.

Andy

aaah so no fighter fish *#41####*

only one of my angel fish is actually growing! one of them is still as small as when i got them!! am slightly confused by this!

 

[confused mermaid]

I have two angels and a fighter in a 46 gallon tank and they get along beautifully. The betta will even fan out his fins and float around and hang out in between the two angel fish. In fact, I'm not sure if he knows he ISNT an angel fish.

I am lucky to have two angels that get along because you're supposed to have more of them to break up aggression. AND I'm really lucky to have angels and a betta that get along. I was fortunate to pick out really mellow angel and betta fish. I bought two gold gouramis before that were terribly aggressive and made my betta hide all the time and I had to take them back to the store.

So I believe it's pretty much the luck of the draw as far as that goes. I heard of someone that had a large tank with two MALE fighters and they got along great which is virtually unheard of.

My moms fighter fish won't even tolerate neons. I think they're kinda the pitbulls of the fishes. When you mix something that isn't supposed to be mixed you have to have another tank ready just in case. I still do incase one of my fishes decides to develop an attitude problem.

 

[Wills]

Albino loaches could be a number of things do they have red fins? Could be an albino red tail or rainbow shark - which would be an issue.

Your tank is roughly 15 gallons which is way way to small for angels - and this is also why one of your angels is not growing and i am guessing the other is not growing at the correct rate either mine grew from less than 2 inch to 8 inch in under a year how big is yours. So what is happening here is they are getting stunted which can create all kind of issues - fish do not grow to the size of their container they send out hormones which affect growth depending on their surroundings how ever if these are constantly telling the fishes brain to stay small it wont allways listen and so certain parts will keep growing so a common issue with stunting is over developed organs and insides with an underdeveloped skeleton and skin and scales - in the long term which we are in now (over 1 year) this will lead to possible gill issues and digestive issues it also will affect the swim bladder.

 

[deadlypoison]

my loaches
a pikature!! http/i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss92/zy...nk/SDC14876.jpg

thats one of my loaches, i believe he (she?) is the smaller one, so Luigi.

Angels,
biggest is (from tip of top fin to tip of bottom fin) is about 5 ish inches, possibly 6. smallest is only 3 and a half inches from fin to fin.

my mate had 5 angels in a smaller tank than mine, all grew to full size, she did have to sell them back to the shop because she didnt have the space for a bigger tank to keep them, but they were all very healthy, and she had one that was a "slow starter" (im hoping thats whats wrong with Rem - Ryuk is the bigger of the two).

i am also very lucky in that my angels are very friendly, they swim with the danios happily and but stay away from the loaches and catfish.

 

[Wills]

Your loaches are the common sucking loaches usually attain around 6 inches sometimes a bit bigger can sometimes be a bit troublesome.

Regardless of if your friend had 6 in a smaller tank its still cruel - it depends on how you perceive fish as pets. Its like people keep goldfish in bowls and bettas in cups its just not a suitable home for that size of fish. To quote a good few people "there are two types of people in this hobby fish keepers and fish havers" and I am afraid you are the latter.

My advice stays the same get a bigger tank - dont get a fighter fish - get more danio or swap them out for the same species, get more cories

 

[arobinson1984]

I'm afraid I agree with wills here.

There's no question that angel fish will live in that size tank, but they won't live happily.

It's the equivalent a raising a Labrador in a cardboard box, cruel.

Keeping fish in tanks that are inadequate stunts their growth which causes them to grow deformed and die a slow painful death.

As wills said there are different kinds of fish keepers, those who keep fish because they are cheap, nice to look at and fairly easy to keep and there is hobbyist keepers who will take as much care over fish as they would a dog or any other pet.

Andy

 

[Curiosity101]

I think you've been incredibly lucky so far. Which isn't a bad thing! But it still doesn't make things right.

I have had the exact same loach as you, and it killed more than one dwarf gourami before I realised what was going on (back in the days before tff)

I can't stress how true peoples advice is. Bear in mind we gain nothing by giving advice. We just don't want you to wake up one day to a betta with shredded fins, or for you to never see a cory cause its terrified to be out alone, or an angel is left on it's side on the bottom of the tank gasping for oxygen with scales missing cause the loach got territorial.

Wouldn't you rather keep fish you know could THRIVE in your sized tank? As opposed to just survive? We could give you some fab ideas of fish you could keep. Just as bright...just as active. But you would actually see them thrive if kept in the correct conditions.

 

[JoolsA2]

i would never get a fighter with a n angelfish, it just wouldn't work.

 

[deadlypoison]

i shall not be getting a figher the resident fish expert was in my local...i wanna say pet shop but it isnt its an animal supply shop.

had a chat with him (his family has been fish keeping and breeding for over 20 years) he said the same as you guys no fighter with angels to big of a risk. so fine. he said i should be OK with the 3 angels (i got one today cuz the little #105### jumped in the bag with the catfish) and the other fish in the tank, and when the angels do get too big they'll do a swap, my three large for three small, but apparently i shouldnt have to worry about that till next summer.

my loaches are happier now that my single catfish is no longer a single catfish. he used to tag on with them, now he has friends (three to be precise) the loaches aren't as jumpy or awkward.

i do need to get some decent pics so i will post them when i have them.

i wish to add - getting a bigger tank is out of the question as i have NO SPACE for a larger tank.

 

[Wills]

fail