Keeping Angels in a 55g

[Finnie]

Hi, I'm new here. I currently have a 55 gallon aquarium that houses 2 Silver Dollars, 3 Angel fish, 3 Upside down catfish that you never see, and one little glo-lite tetra.

I used to have a 20g tank, and when I decided to upgrade, (about a year and a half ago), my idea was to have a whole bunch of Angels. All the folks in the fish stores around here assured me that about 6 Angels would fit fine in a 55 gallon, and that I should try to have them all grow up together.

But I've gone through a lot of baby angel fish in that amount of time, trying to get them to live long enough to grow up. The three I have left are roughly 6 months, 12 months and 16 months old. And now the two biggest ones have started fighting a lot. I think they might be two males fighting over a female, because the youngest one gets along with both of the bigger ones, although she does tend to stick with the yellow one most often.

The more I read, the more I think I'm going to have to give up on my idea of a school of pretty angel fish. I hate the thought of having to get rid of one of mine. Do you think there's any chance that getting a second female would even thngs out?

[Fishin Phil]

I wouldn't try to keep more than 2 Angels in a 55g. And those two had better be a mated pair, or there will be trouble.

[nikelodeon79]

I agree with Fishin Phil.

Even if you do end up with one female and one male, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll pair up. If they don't pair up, they'll likely kill one another.

[monkE]

agreed, a 55 is too small when angels begin to mature and break into pairs. There will always be aggression when you have that odd number.

Hopefully two of yours have paired up and if you can identify which two they are, trade in the third or he will be killed.

Hope this helps

[Finnie]

Thank you all very much. I think I know which is the odd one out. I guess I will have to rehome him.

[Lady Hobbs]

Angels might "fit" in a tank but because of their aggression, you'd have to have a much larger tank for 6 of them. A pair will do lovely in a 55 but you will have babies to contend with. I keep one angel in my 55.

The fish store is confusing "do they fit" to "will it work?"

[Alasse]

Like most cichlids, angels do better if kept overstocked. This spreads out the aggression. I doubt you will have to worry about angel fry from a pair in a community tank

I kept 11 in my 90gal with very little problem :) And most were added as adults

[Lady Hobbs]

For some reason, two threads started on same topic....... now merged together.

[Finnie]

For some reason, two threads started on same topic....... now merged together.

Thank you for fixing that. My computer wouldn't do anything when I hit the button the first time, and when I hit it again, there were two!

The fish store is confusing "do they fit" to "will it work?"

I agree. It seems like they should have known this would happen. They were very adamant about not selling me any guppies, since they said those would get eaten. But they don't appear to care that they were setting my angels up for disaster.

In fact, I've been working with a few fish stores, and none of them ever told me my plan wouldn't work.