My Poor Angel!

[scooterchick]

Hi folks,

I bought an angel fish on Sunday as a nice addition to my tank, didn't think I had any particularly aggressive fish, however the poor angel is cowering in a corner and half his fins have been nipped right off, he looks bald. It's a 37 gallon tank, his tank mates are:

4 golden barbs (who I suspect are responsible)
4 diamond tetra's
2 pearl gouramis (females, also possible suspects)
1 baby bristlenose plec
2 khooli loaches
2 panda corys
1 female swordtail

Now, something has to be done. Either I take him back to the LFS, or I get more Angel fish. Would there be strength in numbers? And does my tank have capacity for more fish? It's a well established tank and I've had the barbs over a year so no chance of getting rid of them. They've kept company with an angel before but he was much older and bigger and didn't take any nonsense.

 

[Bristlenose]

Just one idea i tried once, tank divider or put any offending fish in isolation.
If you divide the tank and give the angel some space he will grow quite quickly in my experience (i kept angels for 4 years).
A friend of mine had a fin nipper so we put it in a hatchery within the tank, so it could see the other fish who it use to attack but not get to them, after two weeks we released it back into the tank and it no longer causes problems! (think it was a danio). We conditioned it! lol.

 

[scooterchick]

Just one idea i tried once, tank divider or put any offending fish in isolation.
If you divide the tank and give the angel some space he will grow quite quickly in my experience (i kept angels for 4 years).
A friend of mine had a fin nipper so we put it in a hatchery within the tank, so it could see the other fish who it use to attack but not get to them, after two weeks we released it back into the tank and it no longer causes problems! (think it was a danio). We conditioned it! lol.

Thanks bristlenose, I'll ring the lfs and see if they have any, is it like a clear plastic thing with little holes in it? The guy at my lfs is really good, I'm very lucky ;-)

 

[Bristlenose]

Just one idea i tried once, tank divider or put any offending fish in isolation.
If you divide the tank and give the angel some space he will grow quite quickly in my experience (i kept angels for 4 years).
A friend of mine had a fin nipper so we put it in a hatchery within the tank, so it could see the other fish who it use to attack but not get to them, after two weeks we released it back into the tank and it no longer causes problems! (think it was a danio). We conditioned it! lol.

Thanks bristlenose, I'll ring the lfs and see if they have any, is it like a clear plastic thing with little holes in it? The guy at my lfs is really good, I'm very lucky ;-)

Yep! thats the one, its a tank divider, you just have to cut it to size, be careful when doing this though. If you make it to tight when you push it in you may damage the tank. A friend of mine once split their tank by making it to tight, dont force it! it has not got to be the perfect fit just tight enough that the fish cannot get past it.
You could get the net like cage to put the aggresive fish in as punishment, two weeks of conditioning should sort him!