Mean male angelfish

[angelcraze2]

I haven't seen this before, but my male platinum glitter angelfish is a bit of a jerk with his female partner. I separated them and gave them their own 33g tank when they started spawning in my pairing tank. I really did so b/c one of her pectoral fins was nipped badly and was developing some fungus. I thought it was due to a fight to eat the eggs between some other angelfish at night. I swabbed her fin with methylene blue, and it healed, but the next time she spawned, her pectorals were nipped at agian, but not as badly, more shredded. The fins always heal between spawnings, but now her tail fin is shredded a bit.

The odd thing is, I've missed seeing a few spawns, but I never see them fight, she does not seem to coward around him, just shows up with torn fins once in a while. Can I let this go on? Will he maybe grow out of it? Idk what his fascination is? He is a pretty platinum and she is a pretty blue with a gold gene, and I wanted to keep at least one pair with these genes, they seem to match well otherwise.

I have one of their spawn in a fry tank currently, and I was just going to let the pairs raise the fry or not in their 33g tanks between the times I steal the eggs. But if it's wrong that he is beating on her, I don't want to just leave things be. Is it that bad/cause for concern?

I posted some pics of them out of my 90g, and a couple of them in their tannined new tank as they were spawning. I would really like to make this work, but something tells me, I should sell the aggressive male and give her a new partner, whoever it may be.

Thoughts?

[rebecca_finny]

Your fish are beautiful :)

Are you completely sure it's him? Could someone else be nipping at her? Are they alone?

My pair are almost always nipping at each other. Not badly enough to do damage, and they don't take direct hits, but it's usually signalling each other to "get away from me". They haven't been spawning much since, so this is probably a dfferent matter (unfortunately I won't be a fish-grandmother any time soon :shrug:), but angelfish will be angelfish and cichlids will be cichlids.

[angelcraze2]

Thanks for your reply :)

I love these two also, thanks! Yeah, it's him :( They are alone now in a 3ft tank (18" high) and have been since the end of January (two months). The first spawn in my 90g, I thought (hoped) it was other angels in a battle to eat the eggs, but she continue to show signs of nipping on her fins with just the two of them.

It's frustrating since I've never seen him nipping at all, and she does not stay away from him. She stands her own. It must be a spawning thing, it is possible they are still courting too, but she does not back down. The pair must eat their eggs because no eggs turned up. I missed the last two spawns, but she turns up all nipped up sometimes out of no where. He went after her dorsal the last time. I know they grow back in no time, but I just don't know exactly what is fair and what to do about this.

[angelcraze2]

Re-reading your post, maybe I should make SURE they are still breeding.

[angelcraze2]

Yes, confirmed, they are still breeding. But they eat the eggs almost right away. I am watching carefully for the next spawn. I have decided to keep them together unless he does major damage, or she stops fighting back and looks to retreat. My other pair (the same genes actually, blue x platinum, but genders reversed) have started to fight lately too. Again, the male is being aggressive with the female when they have eggs.

I wonder if dither fish would help at all? It seems when I mess around close to the tank the two of them make a collaborated effort to defend their brood against me, like they forget they are fighting with eachother.