Do All Angelfish Grow Quite Large?

[jvdb]

I am not new to fishkeeping but have never kept angels.  I am currently cycling a tank in preperation for angels and am curious about their growth.  From what I read they grow in size quite rapidly and I know that adults can reach a number of inches in size but am curious if there are any that stay VERY small?
 
The reason being I have noticed a few angels at my local petsmart and they are TINY, less than a dime in body size.  When compared to the other LFS I often go to who's angels bodies are quite large.  Logic tells me that likely the LFS angels are much older and more mature and that the Petsmart ones are just very young.  I would like to purchase a couple angels but would like them to grow to a decent size.  The Petsmart ones are cheaper and equally attractive...just tiny.  Just making sure that if I go with the little guys that eventually they will grow a substancial amount?
 
Also, thinking of purchasing some tankmates for them...  would neon tetras be ok?  From what I read the only risk is that once the angels mature the tetras might become dinner.

 

[Dreamer03]

The angelfish will get quite large if uou dont have to small of a tank. I got mine as dime size they are oretty darn large. Except one that didnt grow too much. No idea what caused the stunt growth on him. Neon tetras is bot a good idea. My sister and dad didnt listen and they all became snacks. I have mine with blood parrots but a lot of people would nit recommend that. Maybe some other tetra that is larger and wont fit in their mouths when they are larger.

 

[DrRob]

Angels do indeed grow fairly large. Particularly in height. They do appear in the shops very small, and they are indeed young.
 
There are species of angel that are larger than the main ones that you'll see in most shops, but that doesn't really help you, sadly there are no smaller ones.
 
One of their issues is that they tend to lull people into putting them into smaller tanks due to their habits. They're naturally ambush predators, using their vertical stripes to hide in plants or roots and sitting fairly still, then putting on a burst of speed to hunt. Neon tetras would feature in their natural diet, so may well become a meal as they get bigger, with the angel still looking fairly innocent and apparently ignoring them in between meals. Larger tetras are fine. Well grown cardinals tend to be fine except with the largest specimens, and deeper bodied tetras like lemons are generally fine as well. Guppies seem to be a popular meal in my experience as well, particularly as they'll tend to get a taste for the growing fry and then move onto the adults.
 
You do have to watch them with fast moving fish, as they either stress the angels out, or annoy them into attacking, and nippy fish such as a lot of barbs are trouble for them as the angels large fin structure (the source of the bursts of speed) and relatively immobility when not striking, makes them target practice for the nippers. Again that goes one way or the other, I've seen angels systematically take out a whole shoal of tiger barbs that were annoying them, but I've seen a lot more suffer and die from the nipping.

 

[jvdb]

Thanks, very helpful.  I don't WANT smaller fish.  I'm happy with the conventional adult angel size, just making sure these will grow sufficiently.  And thakn you to both of you with advice on the tetras.... obviously not a good idea.  I may just keep the angels on their own.

Angels do indeed grow fairly large. Particularly in height. They do appear in the shops very small, and they are indeed young.
 
There are species of angel that are larger than the main ones that you'll see in most shops, but that doesn't really help you, sadly there are no smaller ones.
 
One of their issues is that they tend to lull people into putting them into smaller tanks due to their habits. They're naturally ambush predators, using their vertical stripes to hide in plants or roots and sitting fairly still, then putting on a burst of speed to hunt. Neon tetras would feature in their natural diet, so may well become a meal as they get bigger, with the angel still looking fairly innocent and apparently ignoring them in between meals. Larger tetras are fine. Well grown cardinals tend to be fine except with the largest specimens, and deeper bodied tetras like lemons are generally fine as well. Guppies seem to be a popular meal in my experience as well, particularly as they'll tend to get a taste for the growing fry and then move onto the adults.
 
You do have to watch them with fast moving fish, as they either stress the angels out, or annoy them into attacking, and nippy fish such as a lot of barbs are trouble for them as the angels large fin structure (the source of the bursts of speed) and relatively immobility when not striking, makes them target practice for the nippers. Again that goes one way or the other, I've seen angels systematically take out a whole shoal of tiger barbs that were annoying them, but I've seen a lot more suffer and die from the nipping.

 

[Ch4rlie]

As drRob mentions, angels do grow large, particularly in height, so the recommendation is to ensure to have a high tank with height of 24 inches should be considered minimum imho.
 
Otherwise, angles will get stressed if they feel they cannot swim comfortably and start to swim diagonally a bit.