Schools Of Angelfish

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Evad

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Hi all,

Thinking about a large Angelfish tank. Heavily planted. I hear that small schools can reduce the amount of aggressive behavior and the chances of one of the angels being picked on to death. I have a few questions:

1) How many Angelfish to make a "school"? Does it matter if its an odd or even number? Does it have to be all pairs?

2) Can I mix Angelfish types in the school? Or do I need seperate schools of the same type in order to keep the aggressive behavior in check?

Other than heavily planted, are there other things I should do to make the tank ideal for Angelfish? I assume they want very little current? Is there an optimum temp?

Any advice is appreciated.
 
First of all, do you know how to cycle a tank? Do you know how to keep plant's? How big would the tank be? I would say you could put 6 full grown angel's in a 55g with plant's and a school of tetra's and some corries. You heard wrong. The bigger the group, the less the aggression. They are almost garunteed to make at least 1 pair when you add six fish together. When they spawn you might see some aggression towards the other angel's, so watch out if they get to ferocious. Also, there is a issue. Whnew planning to kjeep angel's full term, if started with fish when young, they have been known not to be agggressive to those fish( as often), but young one's are easier to kill since they dont have a good immune systme adn they are so sensitive. Youother option would be put adult's in there, but adults have a shorter lifespan, cost more, and may kill other angel's. So you might want to get 3 inch sized angels. Not babies, but not Monster's either.
 
First of all, do you know how to cycle a tank? Do you know how to keep plant's? How big would the tank be? I would say you could put 6 full grown angel's in a 55g with plant's and a school of tetra's and some corries. You heard wrong. The bigger the group, the less the aggression. They are almost garunteed to make at least 1 pair when you add six fish together. When they spawn you might see some aggression towards the other angel's, so watch out if they get to ferocious. Also, there is a issue. Whnew planning to kjeep angel's full term, if started with fish when young, they have been known not to be agggressive to those fish( as often), but young one's are easier to kill since they dont have a good immune systme adn they are so sensitive. Youother option would be put adult's in there, but adults have a shorter lifespan, cost more, and may kill other angel's. So you might want to get 3 inch sized angels. Not babies, but not Monster's either.


Thanks for the quick reply :) My apologies for sounding like a complete beginner; I am actually not. I a few years back I had a heavily planted aquarium with VHO lighting, CO2, the works. My previous tank was full of rainbows. That was years ago, and now I have moved and finally ready to set the tank up again, but I am looking to do something different. I asked in another forum category if anyone had any ideas, but no responses. Since then I am leaning towards an Anglefish tank since my 5-year old daughter appears to really like those fish a lot.

* I only do fishless cycling
* My tank is 180 gallons
* Two Eheim 2028 filters

Hope that helps. Thanks for the advice on buying younger Angles - that makes sense. Sounds like 6 is the right number for a school. Is it possible to have two schools of different kinds of angelfish in this tank?

Thanks again
 
With a 180 gallon you have room for way more than 6 angels, you could easily double that. Angels like it warmer, 82F is a good temp for angels.

You could mix & match colors all you want, they are all the same species, just different color varieties. I have tanks with at least 5 color varieties together, they all get along the same as tanks with a single color variety.
 
With 180 gallons, you could squeeze about 18 in, but that would be the absolute maximum.

The main thing with all Cichlids is space. In a group, chances are you are going to end up with at least one pair. This pair may end up reeking havoc on the tank. With most Cichlids, there is a pecking order, and the lowest in the pecking order will always get beaten on and eat last. This is just the way it is. Aggression is quite a natural thing with Cichlids. If you get a group of 8, thats a good number. Lots of room. You will most possibly end up with a pair that may need to be removed but the extra space should benefit the Angels.


I am not sure how well mixing species will work out, but I don't think it is advised. Tolak might be able to shed some more light on this matter.
 
With a 180 gallon you have room for way more than 6 angels, you could easily double that. Angels like it warmer, 82F is a good temp for angels.

You could mix & match colors all you want, they are all the same species, just different color varieties. I have tanks with at least 5 color varieties together, they all get along the same as tanks with a single color variety.

Is 82 degrees too warm for most plants? Or is that an OK temp for them? I forget what temp I kept my last tank at - I want to say 78-79.

Great news on the varieties. If I do end up with a pair, do I remove both of them or just one?
 
With a 180 gallon you have room for way more than 6 angels, you could easily double that. Angels like it warmer, 82F is a good temp for angels.

You could mix & match colors all you want, they are all the same species, just different color varieties. I have tanks with at least 5 color varieties together, they all get along the same as tanks with a single color variety.

Is 82 degrees too warm for most plants? Or is that an OK temp for them? I forget what temp I kept my last tank at - I want to say 78-79.

Great news on the varieties. If I do end up with a pair, do I remove both of them or just one?


I have Val, Sword, Lotus, Rotala and Anubias in my Discus tank. The temperature in there is 84 degrees and the plants are doing great! They pearl a lot and are growing like weeds. I wouldn't worry too much about temperature for most of your plants.

If you get a pair you can place them into a 20-25 gallon tank with a sponge filter and a terra-cotta pot. They should breed naturally. You can let try to raise the babies or take them out and raise them yourself. It may become a small profit after a while, a lot of stores will buy back the fish once they grow a little.
 
My limited experience is that as Tolak said mixing colors will be fine. I have a koi and marble breeding pair that have spawned about 3 times so far.

Good luck with them.
 
My limited experience is that as Tolak said mixing colors will be fine. I have a koi and marble breeding pair that have spawned about 3 times so far.

Good luck with them.


As long as they are scalare, they are the same species and this means similar personalities... I believe it's just mixing species that you aren't suppose to do, but I bet in a big enough tank it might be able to be done.
 
when i used to have 5 angels in my 55, they were still agressive, especially around spawning :nod:



when i used to have f angels in my 55, they were still agressive, especially around spawning :nod:
 

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