Angelfish Pair... Aggression

[lalalaura]

So I have a breeding pair of angels, well they haven't successfully bred but they have laid eggs about 4 times now. They always eat the eggs when the light goes off at night.

I bought a new tank for them because I thought being in with all the other fish was stressing them out. They have been in the new tank about 2 weeks and last laid eggs last Sunday. Anyways, they are aggressive towards each other now. The male keeps going after the female and she hides all day in one corner of the tank. (Not 100% sure on the sex). I am watching them right now and he keeps going after her and pecking at her sides repeatedly.

What can I do to prevent this? Should I get some kind of small schooling fish in the tank? I want to make sure they are happy in their new home together.

 

[star4]

Sorry I am a little confused, but will try and help

You moved your angels to another tank because you thought the other fish were stressing them out and this was making them eat the eggs??

Now they are on their own they have spawned again but the male is being aggressive to the female, did they eat the eggs? The repeated pecking at her sides is trying to get her to spawn again (some cichlids nip at the anal fin) and she is not ready.

With cichlids you can get a spawning pair, a pair that will spawn constantly and almost never raise the fry themselves, these fish were most likely hand raised (not raised by their parents) so once they have eggs they are at a bit of a loss what to do with them (this comes from generations of hand raised fish), some get it and eventually raise fry others dont.

Angels normally will spawn around every 2 weeks or so (if they have no fry to raise) your options with the male pecking at the female is to either remove him altogether for 2 weeks, or put in a tank divider, or you can just return both to the origional tank (space providing) . I have only bred angels once, I wasnt planning on it I was looking after a group of rescued angels and two pairs decided to spawn in the same tank. Having other fish around does sometimes make better parents as they guard the eggs and fry, sometimes it just backfires and they eat the eggs anyway. Sadly there is no positive answer.

 

[lalalaura]

I'm not trying to breed them at all. They spawned in the new tank but ate their eggs that night.
I just read a lot on the internet that they would prefer a tank to themselves so that's what I did. Would it be a good idea to separate them? I could put the female back into the original tank.

 

[star4]

If you dont want to breed them then maybe splitting them up is your best option if the male keeps showing aggression to the female, he could end up killing her in the worst scenario, or they could sucessfully raise fry, its hard to say. If he is causing a lot of damage and they are eating their eggs, personally I would seperate them as the female will get exhausted constantly spawning. Hope this helps

 

[lalalaura]

Okay thanks, I think that is what I will do!

 

[Electric Warrior]

Could it maybe be the fact that are no dither in the tank with them is what is causing some aggression? I am not totally sure, but it seems like lots of cichlids, especially SA's do better with dithers around them?

 

[lalalaura]

I actually did more research online and decided maybe I should try some dither fish before separating them. May sound selfish of me but I bought a brand new tank for these angelfish and I really don't want to separate them, they look so good together in this tank.

I have some emperor tetras in my other tank so I moved the 6 of them in with the angels to see if that helps with the agression. I'll post again here to let you know if it works! Thanks for all the suggestions, it's much better hearing it from real people then trying to decipher good info online from terrible info.

 

[lalalaura]

Okay so nearly a week ago I put in 6 emperor tetras in with the angels and it seems to have helped. About two days later the male was no longer picking on the female and they have started swimming around together again.
Hopefully all is well, I know they will probably quarrel here and there but as long as they aren't hurting each other then I will keep them together.