first post, Female Angels together

[Angelfish11788]

so i am a pretty good species fish keeper, Oscars, Red bellieds, bigger fish, but i am duh on a community tank. My gf wants our next tank to be a community with Angels as the centerpiece. our lfs knows a local breeder and his Angels are well Angelic. I keep seeing pairs male and female. If we had all female would there be agression, I am sure there would eventually be an dominate one. Could 5 females be fine in a heavy planted 75 gallon long tank. a few smaller fish and some corys will be in there as well.

[Lady Hobbs]

Won't work. Only angels that can be together are mated pairs or one.

[Angelfish11788]

So umm, dang well at my lfs the owner has 6 in a 72 bowl, guess that is 3 pairs.. so if i go to the store and he still has them, will 6 be ok in a 75, i will get them already in pairs, his is 5 inches i just want a descent amount of Angels. I think the are beautiful and ohwell.

[Lady Hobbs]

No, one pair or one single fish can be together. His are probably not yet mature. I can't even keep two males in a 55.

Having pairs is no picnic either as they spawn about every 20 days and that means hundreds of babies to try to get rid of and additional tanks for growing them out.

[Angelfish11788]

ok, so if i have one pair, what would be another descent sized fish for them.. i dont want monster fish but somthing descent size with them, thanks for your help.

[Angelfish11788]

been researching Angels, thought they would be a pretty easy fish to keep, just seems like they are a mess, so know i got a 75 cycling and i have no clue what bigger community fish can go in it,

[Lady Hobbs]

I keep tetra's with mine but not cardinals or neons that may be eaten. Also cherry barbs. Angels are slow movers and don't like wild swimmers with them.

If you have a 300 gallon tank just jammed with plants, you could get away with a few angels. It just doesn't work in tanks 48" long. They are far too aggressive with each other. They will either simply torture others until they remain hidden their whole life or literally kill them.

They are no more messy than any other fish. I quite like them but hate their fighting.

The joy of cichlids.

[Angelfish11788]

yea.. i know the joy.. lol it took 2 weeks but my oscars finally got along, seem its not true with the Angels.

i ment mess as in the false info i orginally got, i thought source was reliable so i have this big dream, went out got a 75 spent alot a money on a false premiss.. sorry to let it out, just irritated as i wanted 2 black veils and 2 kois.. sorry

[Trillianne]

My lfs has a lovely display of rainbows that is well planted we always admire.

I also like the denison barbs (roseline torpedo barb is another name) Either of those seem to be good in a community and are a decent size fish.

[Goes to 11!]

You got bad information from a single source, Nothing more.

Start the hunt for a 90g on CL or ebay :-D, I have two mated pairs in my 90 and they do scrap a bit to define new boundaries whenever one pair is spawning but otherwise all is well. The spawning pair takes over about half the tank so it's very easy to see when to look for eggs because ALL the fish are on the other side lol.

5 in there is WWIII though - I lost an angel in 24 hours [He needed a time out from another tank] by putting him in there and then stupidly trimming the plants which eliminated the cover that was saving him.

Groups/multiple pairs of angels are entirely possible BUT it takes a fair amount of real estate [& civilized stock... So far] to not have it be permanently problematic.