Most angelfish to be put in a 55 gallon?

[noslenwerd]

Still debating on what to put in my 55 gallon, ive narrowed it down to african cichlids... Or angelfish. If i want my angelfish to grow as large as they can get, whats the most i can get? 5?

 

[black angel]

i have 4 in a 50 uk and i think thats about the max for full grown and for any territorial disputes.

 

[John_Nicholson]

You can put alot of angels in a 55. The bigger question is how often are you going to change water and how much are you going to change each time. The larger and more frequent the changes the great the number that you can put in. At the very least you can have 6. I would not hesitate to put in 20, but then again I change alot of water. Years ago I use to breed them for the local fish stores. I had a lot of them in a 75 gallon tank. I was changing 50% of the water in the morning and 50% at night. The tank was to the point that you could not possibly get another fish in it. They were quarter sized fish. The store order 300. I took out 300 fish and you really could not tell a difference.....LOL. As long as there is enough food and the water is kept clean they do best in large groups. It helps to spread the aggresion out.

-john

 

[KnuckleHead]

Still debating on what to put in my 55 gallon, ive narrowed it down to african cichlids... Or angelfish. If i want my angelfish to grow as large as they can get, whats the most i can get? 5?

Whatever choice you go with Im sure it will be a great tank. Im not experienced enough with africans but from what Ive learned is 15 is a nice number for a 55. As for angels I would go with 6 at the most. This will leave plenty of room for them to reach full size. Be prepared for them to pair up and show some aggresion though. I bred angels also for quite a long time and what John is saying is in regards to wholesaling. Yes you can house them in that number temporarily but definatly not good for a relaxing community enviroment.

 

[John_Nicholson]

Knucklehead is correct. I did not mean to imply that you needed several hundred angels in your tank. My 11 year old has raised 10 in a 29 gallon tank to decent size. She ended up with 4 pairs. When that happened we had to move the fish out. She currently maintanes 4 of them in the 29 and they do fine. We don't change water daily in it like we do the discus tanks but we do try to change about 10 gallons once a week.

-john

 

[noslenwerd]

ok so we have some mixed views here.. one person is saying 6 at the least.. other is saying 6 at the most? I stress that if i get angels, i want them to reach as close to full size as possible...

 

[abstract]

ok so we have some mixed views here.. one person is saying 6 at the least.. other is saying 6 at the most? I stress that if i get angels, i want them to reach as close to full size as possible...

john nicolson was talking as a breeder....when he said up to 20, he wasn't talking full grown...i think 6 is the magic number here...that way you spread agression and avoid it at the same time as much as possible...if 2 pair up there will still be agression but there will be enough to spread it around...however, be ready to move a pair or two if they DO pair up, because they won't be too happy with being in the tank together!

 

[John_Nicholson]

My entire mind set is breeding. I slao figure in that some of the fish might not make it or moght not be top quality. If you get more then you need you can cull the ones that do not turnout and just keep the really nice ones.

-john

 

[abstract]

My entire mind set is breeding.

haha yes, i know that...which is why you should restrain from giving breeder advice to those who just want a peacful community - you can really confuse them, although you do offer great advice (so please don't take this in a bad way!)

 

[John_Nicholson]

I'm trying but it is hard to break old habits. I am use to discus forums where everybodies one hope is to breed them....LOL. Out of all of our tanks we only have one community tank........and it gets forgotten about most of the time.

-john

 

[Tolak]

I would go with 6 in a 55, if you plan on doing it as a display/show tank. My 65, the only show tank I have running, has 7 angels, it works out well, nice balance between growth & seeing just enough fish.

If you arrange the decos right, you can minimize problems if & when they pair up. Try to use some tall plants as a divider, taller driftwood as well.

I have a couple of 55s that are more on the line of what John Nicholson is talking about, but that is how a breeding setup works. Bare bottom, homemade racks, filters & tops, crammed with fish, really not showy at all. Unless your a breeder, I guess.

Tolak

 

[Katchan]

Ditto on Tolaks post. except when they mature and pair off (assuming you have at least 2-3 pairs) you may find yourself needing to go down to 4 angels especially if 2 out of the 3 pair decide to breed at the same time. But with luck or if you only have 1-2 breeding pairs up to 7 should be ok

Katchan

 

[swampcat]

Angels may pair up (likely) and may turn on the others and cause problems? I have had groups of six live peacfully toghether in the past. and just within the past two years or so I had a pair take over the tank and literally beat the others into submission when they reached adulthood. All starting toghether from nickel size.