urgent , old angels VS new angels

owl

owl

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Jul 8, 2008
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hi
i have 2 almost adult angels in my 55g and i never seen any agressive move from them , everything was so peacefull , today i bought 2 new angels that are smaller than the other two , it has been bout 2 hours and the old angels have nothin to do except beat the hell outta the new angels ,
what should i do ? is it something temporary and they will be fine or i should do somethin bout that ? :(
 
If I were you, I'd get the old angels to another tank and let the new ones settle first. Did you leave the tank lights off while acclimating the new ones?
 
The old angels were comfy with the territories they'd worked out so everything was peaceful between them. The newcomers were viewed then as new threat to them and these invaders needed to be chased off. Having nowhere else for the new angels to go in a confined space, this turned into a bad situation for everyone. If you take out the old angels and maybe move around some of the decor/plants. All the fish will establish new territories again after you put them back in. Keeping the lights off during this introduction helps too.
 
thnx , the lights were off , i only have an spare 5g QT that there s a juv discus in there right now , can i move the old angels into there , will they bother the discus ?
right now i seperated them , the old ones are in a net in 55g :(
how long this situation will go on ? and if i free the angels won they kill the new ones ? they beatem soooo bad :(
 
I understand the behavior between fish over territories and aggression, but don't have experience with angels to get more specific about what to do about it. If there's a huge size difference between them because of age, you might need to keep the younger fish separate for a little while and give them a chance to reach a more equitable size before putting them together again. Baby/juvenile fish always grow so fast that it shouldn't take very long. This is probably more of a last resort, though, just so you can keep them instead of having to take them back. I'm sure others with more experience will come up with better suggestions for you try before having to do this.
 
Angels are very territorial and establish a strong heirarchy. Both of these factors are playing against you.

I tried to introduce a large female (8+ years old) into a 90G tank with 2 1 year olds and she was beatten up as well, but she eventually won out. To this day thee male and her will ram each other and contest for dominance (it's been almost 2 years now!)

As for your situation, great advice above, but I wouldn't wait to get a temporary tank setup, or bring the young back to the LFS and perhaps get some larger, more mature angels so that they can hold their own.

Regradless, the old angels will need to most likely be removed (80% likelihood even with same size angels), and the decor will need to be altered and a few large pieces completed moved.

P.S.
Most fish take up to a week (or more) to settle in, but in this case you don't want either angel set to get too comfortable, so I would keep them out of the tank for 3-4 days and reintroduce them at night and with the lights out.
 
the older ones are bout 4 inches and new ones are bout 3 inches ( maybe abit smaller) , the net is bout size of a gallon bulk maybe , they can move abit in there but like a prison cell :( , they r still in there and the new ones seems abit calmer ,
i m goin to rescape my tank in 1 or 2 weeks , so i think i have these choices till then :
1-seperate the old ones with net
2-seperate the new ones with net
3-keep new ones in 5g QT with discus till rescapin , if they don bother him , will they ???
4-give the old pair away ...
what would u do if u were me ?
 
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try taking the big ones out first, then rearrange the tank decors and leave the new ones in the tank for a few hours before putting the old ones back . goodluck, or maybe your old ones have paired up? if thats the case, you'll have to get another tank.
 
rearranging the tank may have little to no effect on the angels..
it is worth a shot.

ct is correct.. angels can be extremely territorial. and the new angels are being viewed as invaders.
the aggression between them (if they are not a breeding pair) is conspecific.

they tend to have this aggression for the same species.

I moved a wild angel that was territorial into a tank with 7 discus...he was not aggressive towards the Discus. but then these are large discus.

your best bet would have been to QT the new Angels and allow them time to grow.
and try rearranging the tank so the old fish will try to establish a new territory.
 
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