Angel Fish Behavior

[truetotexas]

1st question

hey guys i just bought my last 2 fish that i am adding to my tank. i bought 2 angel fish, a silver and zebra. ever since i added them to my tank they have been swimming with each other and staying near each other all the time. Now one of the angel fish stays under some driftwood quite often. when its down there under the driftwood the other angel fish will come and like check on it for a bit and then swim around the tank. does this sound normal or should i be concerned. and my water conditions are almost perfect.

2nd question

one of my angel fish always has their dorsal fin down. while the other one has his dorsal fin extended almost all the time. is this like a preference for the angel fish? or like a sign of stress?

thank for dealing with my noobism guys

 

[murphyk32]

question one: seems fine to me, the one hiding may need time getting used to things or something.. but generally seems ok

question two: as far as i know its fine, and nothing to worry about, but i really dont know that for a fact..

 

[Anguilla82]

sounds as though there has been a bit of fighting for dominance. when angels are introduced to a new tank they will often squabble a bit to work out who is boss. sounds like the one that it is hiding is not teh dominant one out of these two.

Is the hiding one the one with the lowered dorsal?
if so this could be linked to the dominance thing as well.
the more dominant one will be out in the tank showing off how powerful he/she is i.e. flaring fins to full stretch while the other one will just sit quietly away for a while.

this should all pass pretty quickly and who knows you could end up with a pair of angels that breed!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

what worries me if you've said your water conditions are 'almost perfect'

can you give us the exact numbers for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate please?

in fish keeping there's a very fine line between good and bad, particularly with ammonia and nitrite, these shoudl be 0 at all times, even 0.1ppm is very very dangerous, some people don't realise and think 'oh it's just 0.1, it's not far off what it should be so it's fine' when it really isn't.

fins clamped and hiding is often a sign of a fish stressed out by poor water conditions.

can you give us the following information which will help us to work out what's going on -

what size is the tank (dimensions and litres or gallons)?
full list of the fish you have?
what test kit are you using?

 

[fergalthefish]

1st question

hey guys i just bought my last 2 fish that i am adding to my tank. i bought 2 angel fish, a silver and zebra. ever since i added them to my tank they have been swimming with each other and staying near each other all the time. Now one of the angel fish stays under some driftwood quite often. when its down there under the driftwood the other angel fish will come and like check on it for a bit and then swim around the tank. does this sound normal or should i be concerned. and my water conditions are almost perfect.

2nd question

one of my angel fish always has their dorsal fin down. while the other one has his dorsal fin extended almost all the time. is this like a preference for the angel fish? or like a sign of stress?

thank for dealing with my noobism guys

can i just say i love the word you used at the end there......noobism!!! what a great word!!!!!!

 

[waterdrop]

I recall a couple of normal things about angel dorsal fin behaviour I believe. Sometimes when a healthy angel moves around quickly, it will pull the dorsal down, and even more as it goes faster. I also recall dorsal fins being folded down when under things - so if its the one under the driftwood, it could be that it just doesn't want the fin to touch the driftwood. I agree with all the other comments about dominance behaviour.

As MW has detailed above, it is always worth a bit of back and forth here with the members over your water parameters as it is important to rule out that what you are seeing is not a reaction to some ammonia or nitrite -- she is right, it shows up as the same types of fin closing etc.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[truetotexas]

i could have given you te numbers yesterday... but the ammonia was close to zero... no nitrite... very little nitrate... ill test again tonight and post some numbers for yall...

to answer MW (my hero)

30 gallons

2 blue platys
3 sunset platys
3 hi fin platys
2 calico platys
2 angels

api master kit for the testing.

i could have given you te numbers yesterday... but the ammonia was close to zero... no nitrite... very little nitrate... ill test again tonight and post some numbers for yall...

to answer MW (my hero)

30 gallons

2 blue platys
3 sunset platys
3 hi fin platys
2 calico platys
2 angels

api master kit for the testing.

there is no signs of fighting at all. they just swim side by side all day... hopefully ill have some baby angels soon!

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, you'll want to post actual test result numbers tonight. If your tests are showing any ammonia at all (assuming you have zero ammonia in your source water), then you may have to question what's going on. If we're going to assume 2" of fish body per platy, then your stocking should be pretty close to max, but ok. But your platies may not be fully grown (also, other members may adjust the expected platy max size for me.. 2" being just a guess.)

Anyway, the filter should be clearing -all- the ammonia, so you may need to question whether the filter has a capacity problem for your tank as it currently stands or whether you have some sort of temporary cleaning problem or something.

Your basics sound good, so maybe it was just one poorly performed test and really your water is ok and the angel just likes to drop its dorsal fin.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[truetotexas]

alright... here are my test numbers... from what i could read on my test kit.. i have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, and 0 nitrate... is it good to have all zeros?