My Angels are extremely aggressive

[Flohrie]

MY angels are really starting to bother me.

I have 4 different sized angels ranging from (body size, not fins) 2 inches down to 1 inch.

Each bigger size pics on the smaller one below it, and the smallest is picked on by all 3.

I have a 55g tank so there should be enough room for them all, and they are fed well.

I know angels can be aggresive but this is silly, they chase each other ound the tank non stop.

Is there anything that could be causing this or any ways to help calm them down?

[JSchmidt]

This sounds like fairly normal angel behavior, unfortunately. It's a concern, because they can hound one another to the point of serious injury or death, so you really need to do something.

Some things to try:
- rearrange the tank frequently to break up recognizable territories that may be defended
- add things to break the sight lines in the tank; use large pieces of driftwood or plants to give fish places to hide behind
- be prepared to remove one or more of the fish

Since your angels are little, they may learn to get along. More likely, though, as they all reach sexual maturity they'll become more aggressive and the problems will escalate.

How recently have the fish been added. Maybe you're just seeing a squabble to determine pecking order...

Jim

[valerie]

this is why i only keep one angel per my tank. Its hard to find a group that won't beat eachother up. Try finding a true pair but beware when they breed or return your agnels now and try again wiht another group that are all teh same size.

Or third thing you could do it return the more aggresive of the group and hope for the best. Angels are fragile and being stressed out all the tiem isnt' good.

[Slappy*McFish]

I started out with 3 half grown angels, and 2 and a half years later, I have just one gigantic male. Turns out that I intially bought two males and a female. 2 paired off and the extra male had to be removed...so I gave it to a friend who had a lone female:)...both pairs bred for quite sometime. Eventually my female went belly up due to the fact that my male wouldn't leave her alone...drove her to an early grave. Now he will live out the rest of his days with his trusty sidekick, a lone male keyhole cichlid(another big ol' brute)..these two are always hanging out together....best buddies.

[Dangerdoll]

same thing happened to me.... I got 3 small ones and wound up with 2 males and a female. Well, the fights over the female soon became obnoxious and I had to remove the weaker male. Keep in mind though that the smallest male may not necessarily be the weakest, he wasn't the weaker one in my tank. He wound up doing some serious damage before I could separate them, however once placed in an entirely different setup where he was the only Angel, he got better. I just lost my female recently and was contemplating getting a couple more but doing the homework, reading here, and remembering back in them days, I think I'm going to leave him alone as emporer. He seems happy enough with the discus he's with. I never would've thought Angels would be such little devils :D

[djlen]

Angels always have displayed this kind of behavior, IME. I bought 3 small ones about 6 weeks ago. I always buy 3 as the odds of getting a pair are better that way. I've raised angels and had them spawn for me in the past, but this has really surprised me. I figured it would be at least 5-6 months before any pairing off would take place, but not only have 2 of them paired off....they spawned on an amazon sword leaf. These fish are very small. My guess is that they are no more than 4 months old.
No red in their eyes and about he size of a half dollar.
And of the 2 that spawned started intimidating the other one. But after they spawned all 3 of them took turns fanning the eggs(which I never thought would make it to maturity) and low and behold the eggs started wiggling. Anyway, they started moving the wigglers all over the tank trying to "protect" them from the other fish in the tank. They'd fall off a leaf and the parents and the step parent would gather them up and spit them back onto a leaf. For such young fish, I was surprised at their instincts. But alas, the next morning all the younguns were gone and the pair when back to picking on the outcast.
I'm sure they'll spawn again and all it does is create stress throughout the whole tank. But I'm not going to get another tank and start breeding again. That gets addictive and I don't want to get into that spiral again.
Len

[nvision]

totally understood about the breeding spiral, len. i was in your shoes some years ago. but hey, it was great while it lasted.

me, i bought a pair of angels some time ago, and they were best buddies since. i've never seen them fight nor show any signs of aggression. each of their size is about a half dollar, and they are really fun to watch because they always swim together; i have never seen them separate before. it would be a pleasant surprise if they happen to be a pair, although i have never seen them try to spawn before.