Angelfish Question?

[FishHobbyist1564]

kev_kb, i dont even want discuses, so i dont know why you are making a big deal about them.

Thanks for the info tho kev_kb, but i agree with everyone else when they say that discus do fine with angels. I see discuses with angels all the time, and no one has ever had any problems with them together (at least i havent heard of any problems.

 

[FishHobbyist1564]

thanks lol but i have another question...

I have 6 angels right now. I do not know what their genders are. But imagine if there are like 5 females and 1 male. When they pair up, will the females actually pair up together, or do they have to pair with the opposite sex?

 

[kev_kb]

kev_kb, i dont even want discuses, so i dont know why you are making a big deal about them.

Thanks for the info tho kev_kb, but i agree with everyone else when they say that discus do fine with angels. I see discuses with angels all the time, and no one has ever had any problems with them together (at least i havent heard of any problems.

I wasn't making a big deal, just trying to give helpful advice. I posted it as you made the post, "hmm ill have to consider the discus." lol and lots of people buy them without knowing what they are getting into.

Just because you see something all the time doesn't make it right, angels and discus can work out in small numbers in very large tanks. However, if you really research discus, join a few discus forums read a few books etc you'll find it fails more times than it works out!

To answer your other question same sex pairs do happen, well they try anyway...

PS The plural of Discus is still Discus.

 

[Straydum]

i wouldnt count on that. female pairing occurs most in the absence of a male.

 

[rodrigoflores]

Yes, I have seen females pair and even lay eggs, some times there was males in the tank but most of the time it was just females.

Ro
www.tropicalfishpages.blogspot.com




I have 6 angels right now. I do not know what their genders are. But imagine if there are like 5 females and 1 male. When they pair up, will the females actually pair up together, or do they have to pair with the opposite sex?
[/quote]

 

[FishHobbyist1564]

ok thanks everyone im just waiting for them to pair up lol.

How long does it usually take for them to pair up?

 

[Straydum]

i cant give u a specific time, it varies with different individuals. mine normally start pairing up after around 8-10 months or so.

 

[FishHobbyist1564]

lol the problem is i dont know how old mine are, and i cant make an estimate based on their size (since i am new with angels)

Their "disc-shape" part of their bodies is a little bigger than a quarter. And they are definitely an inch long not including their tails.

 

[nmonks]

There is no way to sex angels except when spawning, and certainly not as small as you have. The only way to get a pair is to rear a group and let them pair off themselves (they can generally sex one another!). Buying two and hoping for the best doesn't always work. In fact, it has a 50% chance of not working. If you have two males... be prepared to separate them (and you have a 25% chance of having two males, all else being equal). Angels school when young, but become territorial when mature.

And for what it's worth, I'd vote against common angels (which are a hybrid, not a species) as companions for discus. Altum angels can work quite well with discus, but otherwise there's no real advantage to mixing angels and discus and many potential disadvantages. In a big tank, the best cichlids to mix with angels are festivums, rams, dwarf acara, keyhole cichlids, or perhaps even the more gentle West African dwarf cichlids like Pelvicachromis taeniatus. Angels also mix well with lace gouramis and the more placid climbing perch, like Ctenopoma acutirostre, a species that occupies a similar niche.

Cheers, Neale

The problem is i dont know how old mine are, and i cant make an estimate based on their size (since i am new with angels). Their "disc-shape" part of their bodies is a little bigger than a quarter. And they are definitely an inch long not including their tails.

 

[FishHobbyist1564]

how hardy are angels, because in the past two days, two of them died...

Here is my water quality (water conditions):

pH: 6.8
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrItes: 0 ppm
nitrAtes: 10 ppm
temperature: 80 degrees Farenheit

I have two filters running in the tank
Also, there is no aggression in the tank, since the angels are fairly young and still school together.

 

[nmonks]

Depends on the quality of the stock and where they've come from. Wild-caught angels aren't in the least hardy. But captive-bred angels are basically robust and tolerant. Anything from pH 6-8 and hardness 5-20 degrees dH is acceptable to them, at least for basic maintenance in a community tank.

What they won't put up with is a "new" tank -- angels are definitely fish to add 3-6 months after setting up your aquarium. Even if you have a good biological filter that's been cycled, it takes about that long for an aquarium to really settle down. Don't know why. Just does. Anyway, stick angels in too early, and they often don't make it.

It's also a mistake to buy them when they're very small (small coin size).

Your water quality/chemistry sounds excellent. You don't mention hardness, and the one thing worth stating is you should almost never use domestically softened water. If you have a domestic water softener, use the drinking water tap (i.e., the unsoftened water) even if the hardness and pH sound too high. Domestic water softeners don't soften water in the way aquarists mean it; all they do is change one set of salts (mostly calcium salts) for another set of salts (sodium salts). So you end up with water that has a low carbonate hardness but high total dissolved solids, and a pH level that bounces around because it is no longer properly buffered. In short, it's bad for fish.

Cheers, Neale

how hardy are angels, because in the past two days, two of them died...
Here is my water quality (water conditions):
pH: 6.8
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrItes: 0 ppm
nitrAtes: 10 ppm
temperature: 80 degrees Farenheit
I have two filters running in the tank
Also, there is no aggression in the tank, since the angels are fairly young and still school together.

 

[FishHobbyist1564]

thanks nmonks. My tank has been running for about 3 years lol, so they werent put in a new tank

I think you are right that my angels were too small... i guess i'll try with some bigger ones next time.

I dont know how to test hardness in my tank, because i can only test pH, ammonia, nitrItes and nitrAtes with my testing kit.

 

[nmonks]

Assuming you don't have a water softener, you can "guesstimate" by looking into a kettle. If it furs up so badly you need to clean it out every month or two, you have hard water. If it never furs up, you have soft water. And if it is somewhere in between, you have medium hard water.

To be strictly accurate, this guesswork only looks at temporary hardness rather than total hardness, but it's good enough to start with.

Cheers, Neale

I dont know how to test hardness in my tank, because i can only test pH, ammonia, nitrItes and nitrAtes with my testing kit.

 

[pyroo]

hmm ill have to consider the discus. I'm looking into rams also.

Can angels be put with smaller cichlids such as those little yellow ones (i think they are called lemon something) or convict cichlids?

convicts will murder all your angels and its other tank mates....veeeeery agressive cichlid

angels can live peacefully with festivum

others: keyhole cichlid, cockatoo cichlid, rams...etc...(you might be able to keep angels with kribensis, but depending on the fish, it'll nip the fins of the angel)

and i actually think that buying smaller angels are better than bigger ones because they grow really really fast, but before adding angels, you might want to add a group of schooling fish first like rasboras, than add the angels, that why, the angels will feel less nervous seeing other fish swimming in the open (all my angels that i started with were dime size, took them one month for them to grow to a quarter!)

 

[Straydum]

the idea of buying angels at a certain size is subjective. if you're an experienced keeper of angels, buying at different sizes wouldnt make much of a difference. the importance still lies in the quailty of the water they are to be kept in, the tank, and the tank mates. personally i go for angels that are around 2 inchs in length.

angel hardiness is relative as well. on a lighter note though, long finned angels are observed to be less hardy compared to the normal fin types.