Genicanthus Watanabei

[Jacob D]

A little over a year ago I added a pair of watanabe angels to my tank (75g). I waited until finding a healthy pair and carefully picked them out. They had been doing great for 9 months at which time I started a sandbed removal in my tank. Although I tried to be as careful as possible when doing this I caused a massive nutrient problem leading to some bacterial infections in a few corals, and I believe something similar in my male watanabe. I don't know exactly what happened; it was literally a night and day difference, and he died a few days later.

After his death the female seems to be more aggressive to the other reef fish. At one point I attempted to add a small melanospilos female and the watanabe nearly killed her, I had to give her to a friend (the melanospilos).

I very much want to add another male but I am worried about the aggression of the female that I currently have. I have considered trying to find another pair, and getting rid of my current female, but I really hate to do that. I am attached to her and she is in great condition. Plus finding a healthy pair is more challenging than finding a healthy male, even here in sunny California. Do you think she would be aggressive towards a larger male? What would you do?

 

[triggerfish1976]

I tried doing a harem of Watanabei's once. At one point I had 1 male and three females. One of the females ended up picking on the other two and I eventually got rid of them before they were stressed out to death.
I have not noticed any agression issues with the female to other fish in the tank and the male is a model citizen as well. Watanabei's are hermaphrodic and females have been known to change to males in the home aquarium but generally another female is present to prompt the sex change. In your case, having the melanospilos female could have prompted her to start changing but that is just a wild guess.
I also currently have a large male red sea zebra angel in my tank and the male Watanabei has not shown any aggression towards him.
These angels are also active swimmers and she may be showing agression due to the limited swimming space in your tank.
Given that this is a very unusual display by your female I would be hesitant in geeting another male until you can determine what is causing the aggression.

 

[Jacob D]

Thanks for your input. I actually first noticed her aggression when the male became sick. She was chasing and picking at him a little. Usually he would chase her. In general they would swim together but once in a while he would give her a little chase. With the melanospilos the female was very aggressive with non-stop chasing and biting.

The other fish in the tank are a dwarf golden angel, ruby scale wrasse, small rabbit fish, and rainford goby. She is not overly aggressive but she will chase the wrasse and dwarf angle a little. There is no biting going on. I know the tank is on the smallish side for the watanabei's but the rockwork is mostly low and open. I probably won't get another male at this point, mainly because I don't want to disrupt the community, but I would really like to have one