question about angels

[Whitey]

This topic could go on forever, there will always be people telling you not to and people telling you its fine, your only way to ever find out is to try it and find out for yourself.

Oh but at your own risk of course.

 

[xanthianacid]

Chiclids are known for aggression/territorialism, but I have found angels have far more person/fishonality. They are definately individuals and where some will hunt down and eat tank mates, others will not. As has been stated, it's a thing of chance. Up your chances with littler/younger angels, I have heard/found if they are around smaller tank mates while they are smaller they are less likely to hurt fellow tank mates when they can (ie when bigger). But all this can change depending on the nature of the angel itself.

 

[freddyk]

Angels are very peaceful, that is why they're great for community tanks.

Cichlids are alway seen as killers, and some of them are. Most of them though, only go after fish for two reasons.

1: They see them as food
2: They see them as a competitor.

Food would be something able to fit in its mouth. For an adult Angel that might be say, a neon. It's a question of time before the Angel reaches a point when it starts eyeing the neons and thinking maybe, just maybe. His stomach growls.

Meanwhile the neons are doing their thing, and the Angel keeps getting bigger. It gets to a point where the neons notice that gleam in the Angels eye and think maybe, just maybe. Their shoulders tense.

A Serpae tetra is larger, plus it has a laterally compressed (narrow and tall) body that makes it more difficult food. The Angel instinctively knows this and doesn't see the Serpaes as food. The is also not a competitor as say, another Angel or other cichlid might be. The Serpaes are ignored. The Serpaes, recognizing the lack of threat, happily go about their business, as relaxed as Serpae can get.

There are hundreds of characin we can use in place of 'Serpae tetra', all of which you don't need to rely on 'luck' to work. There are actually very few tetra's that are not suitable for Angels. Neons is one of those few. We can rely on luck though. They're only fish.

 

[FishEnthusiast]

I am going with Freddy on this one. I had my adult angel with my neons, the neons died and/or were eaten. I added glolites a while back, they slowly became snacks. I just recently noticed and moved them to a safer place. I also know about that "gleam" my boy looks positivly evil when he spots something he doesn't like (i.e. the other angel till territories were established) or when he sees food, like my glolites. The serpaes I used to have, nope, he ignored those, and the buenos aires tetras I used to have (both schoals returned to the lfs for various reasons)

 

[abstract]

i also agree with freddyk on this one although i've never kept angels (getting some this week though!)....i always liked the look of harlequin rasboras with angels, and IMO that is as small as you want to go - even then i might run into problems in the future when the angels are very large, but i doubt it