Angel Scaring Ram?

[Phenz]

about a month ago my tank took a serious nose dive.

its a 20Gallon tall planted tank and i had 2 rams, 6 neons, 6 glowlight and an angel fish.

ever since i introduced the angel fish the rams were hiding under leaves and at the back of the tnak behind bog wood.

then i had a massive epidemic of some sort and lost 5 neons, 4 glowlights and the stronger/bigger of the two rams.

the ram only comes out from behind the bogwood when the angel fish swims around behind it, and always stays very close to the gravel. Sometimes the angel fish will spot it and take a b-line for it and chase it to another hiding place. There doens't seem to be any fin nipping or physical harm come to the ram. i thought it might just have been a blow to his confidence after the loss of the other ram, but he's been hiding for a month or so. any suggestions on what could be wrong?

i want to start restocking, but i don't want to disrupt the balance, getting a new ram might be too confrontational to the angel and cause worse problems. i'm really attatched to both fish because the ram was my first - non tetra - fish and i bought the tank with getting an angel fish in mind - they're my favourite looking fish. i had 3 panda corries but they all died in the first week... no idea why - this was before the introduction of the angel.

sorry for the long post. any suggestions?

 

[RadaR]

The Angel seems to be the problem. Quite an aggressive Angel there too. A 20G really isnt big enough for an Angel and other cichlids (the Rams).
He's probably the cause of all the mayhem.
Dont introduce any more stock whilst he's in the tank. The new stock will inevitably be killed seeing as that the tank is now the Angel's territory.
Best thing to do is re-home him, which I know does blow

 

[Phenz]

i was thinking of getting either a larger thak, maybe a 4ft if i can find a cheap second hand one. think i'll rehome the ram and get a few more and hopefully get some to pair up.

if i were to do this, and have just the angel and a few tetras in the tank, would it be advisable to add another angel to the tank. don't know whether it would be seen as a focus of hostility or a friendly relief of lonely frustration? i know if i have a pair and they start mating then they'll get very territorial/aggressive i can just move the tetras into the other tank.

 

[nmonks]

Angelfish are shocking badly behaved fish sometimes. They are also rather large and generally territorial, so mixing in a smallish tank with dwarf cichlids is usually a bad idea. Dwarf cichlids are at the bottom of the food chain, and in the wild stay under cover 24/7. In an aquarium, we'd like them to come out more. You do this by adding dither fish -- small, mindless surface dwellers. Danios, marble hatchetfish, lampeye killis, or guppies are ideal, and use whichever depending on the available space and water chemistry. The dwarf cichlids take their "cue" from the surface fish. If they're swimming about in the open, the dwarf cichlids will come out. If there are no small fish swimming in the open, the dwarfs stay home. Simple as that. Add something bigger than the dwarfs, and the dwarfs think it's unsafe to come out, regardless of whether the bigger fish is something dangerous (like a pike cichlid) or harmless (like a gourami).

So, take out the angel, and throw in half a dozen small, schooling fish of your choice, preferably something that stays at or close to the surface and *isn't* shy (you want the dither fish to exude confidence, not nervousness!).

Cheers, Neale

 

[Phenz]

when it was just a pair of rams and a school of tetras it was really nice to see the rams cause they would nose at the gravel, playfully chse eachother and it was a very denslely planted tank and you'd always see atleast one swimming in the open and the other wouldn't be far behind.

 

[nmonks]

Well, I suspect you know the problem and how to fix it!

Cheers, Neale