Natural Companions For Angelfish

[sputnick]

So now that I've had my angelfish for a while and doing some research on where they come from and what their natural habitat looks like I thought that it might be cool to do a semi-biotope tank. Meaning I just want the fish to come from the same habitat/region ect. I know that angels coexist with rummy nose tetras and cardinal tetras in the wild but I'm having difficulty finding any other fish that they live with besides those two. Can anyone help me out here? 

 

[frapadoodle]

Corys! Corys! Corys!
Hatchets, with a tight lid. Bristlenose Plecs, if you like poo machines.
But gotta have Corys.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

In the wild angel groups are often found living within much larger groups of discus. This is true for all wild angels save Altums which live in places that do not have any discus.
 
But angels come from a lot of different places, so your choice of fish would be dependent on from which area your fish came. Of course, if you do not have wilds or direct descendents of wilds, they have no true biotope.
 
That said:
 
"Found in grassy, shore areas along the banks of lakes and slow-moving rivers. South America; Amazon, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil
 
Catfish (Armored, Pimelodids, Doradids, Loricarids), characins (Headstanders, hatchetfish, larger schooling tetras), cichlids (Angelfish, Discus, Waroo, Acaras, Ram, Eartheaters), gouramis, livebearers that can tolerate neutral water conditions."
 
From http/fish.mongabay.com/angelfish.htm

 

[silenthawk2x3]

I have mine in with 12 corydoras, 16 lemon tetras, 2 BN plecos. Everyone is happy and its a good-looking tank. I tried hatchetfish, but I found they have no will to live and a tight fitting lid is not optional. 

 

[sputnick]

I didn't realize corys lived with angelfish naturally. I have yet to own corys so I don't really see why everyone loves them so much but I am tempted to try a group of them out. Right now in my 45 gallon I have 2 angelfish, One is tank bred the other is an altum, 4 odessa barbs, 5 black neon tetras, 7 snakeskin barbs, 1 bolivian ram, and 1 BN pleco. I'm thinking of only keep the BN pleco and the angels of course. But then for the rest of the stocking I was thinking one of these.
 
2x angelfish- 12 inches of fish
 
15x rummy nose tetra- 30 inches of fish
 
1x BN pleco- 6 inches of fish
-------------------------------------
          total: 48 inches of fish
 
 
           OR
 
2x angelfish- 12 inches of fish
 
7x cardinal tetras- 14 inches of fish
 
7x rummy nose tetras- 14 inches of fish
 
1x BN pleco- 6 inches of fish
---------------------------------------------
             total: 46 inches of fish
 
 
                     OR
 
2x Angelfish- 12 inches of fish
 
7x rummy nose tetra- 14 inches of fish
 
10x corydoras- 20 inches of fish
-----------------------------------------------------
                  total: 46 inches of fish

 

[wrightt3]

Cardinals will get eaten. Despite common belief, cardinals and neons are pretty much the same size. Cardinals only get to be about half a cm longer so a full grown angelfish would make a meal out of them for sure.
For that reason, I would recommend rummynoses so go for either your first or last option. I hope you know what your letting yourself in for with that altum though. I don't know how long you've had him but they are supposedly extremely difficult to keep.
Good luck anyhow.

 

[sputnick]

Cardinals will get eaten. Despite common belief, cardinals and neons are pretty much the same size. Cardinals only get to be about half a cm longer so a full grown angelfish would make a meal out of them for sure.
For that reason, I would recommend rummynoses so go for either your first or last option. I hope you know what your letting yourself in for with that altum though. I don't know how long you've had him but they are supposedly extremely difficult to keep.
Good luck anyhow.

Really.. I have had not a single problem with mine over the three weeks that I have owned it. It colored right up and ate food less than 24 hours after I added him to the tank. He happily swims around the tank and is only shy when I'm right up next to the glass. He even begs for food sometimes with my other angel lol Also there is no way my neons would fit in the mouth of even my larger angelfish and he is close to full grown if not completely full grown. I can see how small cardinal tetras would be a problem but larger ones I'm not sure they would be able to eat. But I'm thinking a larger school of fish instead of two schools

 

[wrightt3]

You'd be surprised at how big their mouths are

 Rummynoses would be the safer option but I suppose you could try cardinals if they were fully grown.
If you haven't already, I would do a lot of research on that altum. 3 weeks isn't really that long

 

[sputnick]

lol I've seen the altum yawn a few times and its true they are pretty big.. I do think I will steer towards just rummy nose to be on the same side. TBH I didn't really do any research on the altum 

I figured that they would be about the same as normal angelfish, but now I did do some research.
Main points I've learned 
-picky eaters but in good health are not very picky
-need soft acidic water to THRIVE, they live in 8.2Ph just fine
-watch for black spot
-they need very clean water
-can not tolerate ANY ammonia
-they are sensitive to copper sulfate, trichlorofon and oxytetracycline
 
So what I conclude is that they are a lot like DIscus in a way. I did not know about black spot before, and I now recall seeing a few black dots on my altum, though not many. I do weekly 50% water changes and could probably bump that up to two 30% water changes a week, though from what I have read water changes are not as important as with discus. I feed a mixture of flake food, freeze dried blood worms, and frozen blood worms. Each time I have seen the altum eat. I do believe that My tank could use some more plants, but I've been trying to work on that. Other than that I do believe that my altum is healthy. I think part of the reason is the ordeal he went through in shipping. During shipping the bags were punctured and leaked ALL of their water out. Leaving them gasping for air and half dead when my LFS opened the box. They quickly got them in water but sadly only one survived, and thats the one I own. I will watch him closely as I have been doing for signs of stress or disease but I truly think that my altum is healthy and happy. If he shows signs otherwise then I will take him back to the LFS. As beautiful and rare as these fish are I don't want to just kill one