How to choose angelfish?

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Barry Tetra

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Hi everyone. I have 2 angelfish tanks, 1st tank; angelfish and discus (I know angel and discus can not be mixed but all angel in this tank is peaceful) 2nd tank; 6 territorial angels
What I want is peaceful angel for discus tank. The questions is; is there anyway to choose peaceful angelfish? because all of them in LFS seems to be very territorial.
 
There is really no way to order an angle online, because you don't know if it is aggressive or not.

Why do you keep trying to mix angels and discus? They just plain out don't get along. Discus are shy fish while angles are aggressive. These 2 traits never mix.
 
There is really no way to order an angle online, because you don't know if it is aggressive or not.

Why do you keep trying to mix angels and discus? They just plain out don't get along. Discus are shy fish while angles are aggressive. These 2 traits never mix.
There is also shy angelfish too, I put the aggressive one in another tank. The shy one is for discus.
 
Hi everyone. I have 2 angelfish tanks, 1st tank; angelfish and discus (I know angel and discus can not be mixed but all angel in this tank is peaceful) 2nd tank; 6 territorial angels
What I want is peaceful angel for discus tank. The questions is; is there anyway to choose peaceful angelfish? because all of them in LFS seems to be very territorial.
Angels are cichlids and as such can be territorial and aggressive. Each angel also has individual personality and some will be more aggressive than others but still cichlids.
As for the Angels with your Discus ill tell you the same as before. Its not a matter of your angels being aggressive or not. Its about feeding styles. Discus are shy timid slow picky feeders Angels are not and Angels will out compete the Discus for food leading to stressed underfed discus. To make discus feel safe they need dither fish. Dither fish in a shoal help discus feel safe and secure as the dither fish indicate the lack of predators. Also Discus need water temperatures of no lower than 82 degrees F 82 is a bit toasty for Angels and while they can tolerate mid 80s any time a fish is kept in water too warm it speeds the fishs metabolism and shortens its life so not only are you stressing out the discus by keeping angels with them you are also shortening the lives of your angels.
 
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Angels are cichlids and as such can be territorial and aggressive. Each angel also has individual personality and some will be more aggressive than others but still cichlids.
As for the Angels with your Discus ill tell you the same as before. Its not a matter of your angels being aggressive or not. Its about feeding styles. Discus are shy timid slow picky feeders Angels are not and Angels will out compete the Discus for food leading to stressed underfed discus. To make discus feel safe they need dither fish. Dither fish in a shoal help discus feel safe and secure as the dither fish indicate the lack of predators. Also Discus need water temperatures of no lower than 82 degrees F 82 is a bit toasty for Angels and while they can tolerate mid 80s any time a fish is kept in water too warm it speeds the fishs metabolism and shortens its life so not only are you stressing out the discus by keeping angels with them you are also shortening the lives of your angels.
Their name are angelfish and they act like a devil :rolleyes:
 
Their name are angelfish and they act like a devil :rolleyes:
Theyre cichlids, and while Discus are Cichlids as well Discus are very shy timid cichlids.
Angels and Discus dont belong in the same tank.
if you have 2 large tanks put the Angels in 1 and the Discus in the other and give both a shoal of dither fish. Keeping in mind that the tank needs to be big enough to hold atleast 6 of each as both angel fish and discus are shoaling fish. Which would require at minimum 75 gallons. A 75 gallon for 6 angels and another 75 gallon for the discus keeping in mind both should have dither fish as well and live plants.
 
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Theyre cichlids, and while Discus are Cichlids as well Discus are very shy timid cichlids.
Angels and Discus dont belong in the same tank.
if you have 2 large tanks put the Angels in 1 and the Discus in the other and give both a shoal of dither fish. Keeping in mind that the tank needs to be big enough to hold atleast 6 of each as both angel fish and discus are shoaling fish. Which would require at minimum 75 gallons. A 75 gallon for 6 angels and another 75 gallon for the discus keeping in mind both should have dither fish as well and live plants.
Some angelfish are shy for example this guy, he scared of other angelfish thats why I put him in discus tank. Just want to find friend that is the same kind as him but he scare of them..., other that him I put other angels in another tank.
 

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Some angelfish are shy for example this guy, he scared of other angelfish thats why I put him in discus tank. Just want to find friend that is the same kind as him but he scare of them..., other that him I put other angels in another tank.

No, this is almost guaranteed not to work. Other members have explained why, I will just go into more detail why this will not work.

First, all male cichlids regardless of species are territorial. Some species exhibit this more than others, but it is an inherent trait of the fish that is programmed into their DNA and you are not going to change it, so accept it and provide for it.

Second, angelfish is a shoaling species, as is discus. In both cases they need a smallish group, at least five (never fewer, except for a breeding pair). Both will develop an hierarchy within the group once they are together, and this occurs fairly quickly in an aquarium, so this means you must start out with the intended group together, never add fish to an existing group of either species.

Angelfish and discus should never be kept together in the same tank. The fact that you do not see physical aggression does not mean all is well. It is not. Fish communicate chemically with pheromones and allomones, and you cannot see these, but the fish read them. Aggressive or dominant signals will cause stress to subordinate fish in the species, or to fish in other species. Angelfish are more aggressive feeders, which does not mean aggressive in the sense of physical fights, it means the angelfish are much more determined to eat any food placed in the tank, and discus are more retiring. Here again, you may not see physical signs of this, but it is there, and the fish are being impacted.

Individual fish can exhibit their inherent traits/behaviours to varying degrees. There is no such thing as a peaceful angelfish as such, it is merely the case that the individual angelfish may not be as demonstrative as another angelfish in exhibiting its natural behaviours towards other fish. It is always wise to assume the fish we acquire will be normal for the species. As soon as you risk the fish in the hopes the one selected will be abnormal, you are in for trouble.

The single angelfish you now have in one tank should remain on its own; if you add other angelfish you are likely going to see it being killed. It is certainly happier alone.
 
No, this is almost guaranteed not to work. Other members have explained why, I will just go into more detail why this will not work.

First, all male cichlids regardless of species are territorial. Some species exhibit this more than others, but it is an inherent trait of the fish that is programmed into their DNA and you are not going to change it, so accept it and provide for it.

Second, angelfish is a shoaling species, as is discus. In both cases they need a smallish group, at least five (never fewer, except for a breeding pair). Both will develop an hierarchy within the group once they are together, and this occurs fairly quickly in an aquarium, so this means you must start out with the intended group together, never add fish to an existing group of either species.

Angelfish and discus should never be kept together in the same tank. The fact that you do not see physical aggression does not mean all is well. It is not. Fish communicate chemically with pheromones and allomones, and you cannot see these, but the fish read them. Aggressive or dominant signals will cause stress to subordinate fish in the species, or to fish in other species. Angelfish are more aggressive feeders, which does not mean aggressive in the sense of physical fights, it means the angelfish are much more determined to eat any food placed in the tank, and discus are more retiring. Here again, you may not see physical signs of this, but it is there, and the fish are being impacted.

Individual fish can exhibit their inherent traits/behaviours to varying degrees. There is no such thing as a peaceful angelfish as such, it is merely the case that the individual angelfish may not be as demonstrative as another angelfish in exhibiting its natural behaviours towards other fish. It is always wise to assume the fish we acquire will be normal for the species. As soon as you risk the fish in the hopes the one selected will be abnormal, you are in for trouble.

The single angelfish you now have in one tank should remain on its own; if you add other angelfish you are likely going to see it being killed. It is certainly happier alone.

Hold up...you can keep a single angelfish in a tank? Won't it be sad and doesn't it need a small group?
 
Hold up...you can keep a single angelfish in a tank? Won't it be sad and doesn't it need a small group?
Angelfish are a shoaling fish that prefer to be kept in groups of five more. Can you keep a single angel? Sure. But will the fish feel secure? Probably not.
 
Angelfish are a shoaling fish that prefer to be kept in groups of five more. Can you keep a single angel? Sure. But will the fish feel secure? Probably not.
Couldn't you use dither fish to help it feel secure?
 
In a way, yes. But also no. Its programmed into them that they need groups. The fish will be stressed even with ditherfish
 

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