Keeping Pair of French Angel

sandwi54

sandwi54

New member
My favorite fish is French angel, which is also the fish that got me into the hobby. Right now I have a single French angel that I grew from 4" to 8", and which is in full adult coloration. Since French angels are one of the few animals that mate for life, and are often seen in pairs while diving, I am dreaming to keep a pair. However, after lots of searching online I have not found any reference on pairing up French angels and keeping them in home aquariums. I have found people who buy existing pairs caught in the wild, but not so much on any effort of pairing them.

Has anyone attempted this or heard of something like this? I know French angel is not sexual dimorphic, so there's no way I can tell if mine (or the new one) is a male or female. I'd appreciate it if anyone can share experience in this.
 
From what I understand, angels in general change sex from juvi to adult, with the most dominant one turning male. I think the bigger question will be can two fish (M/F) coexist in a certain space? You probably haven't found any references to this regarding french angels because they are such large fish (few people have that large a tank), and I think if people were going to use that much space on a pair of angels, IMO most people would choose a different angel (trust me, I LOVE french angels, but let's face it, they are not favored by most angel keepers, compared to all the other species). :)
 
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Adult French angels have been showing up lately and to me they are very beautiful. I hope people chime in because it would be awesome to see a pair in your tank.
 
An 8" French is still small. They get huge and tall. Mine is over 12" and is still growing. My tank is a 350g and that seems a bit tight for him. Two in a 225g does not sound like a very good idea.
 
I have been seeing them lately as well. Sized at about 4 to 6 inches. Around $150 for the larger size.
 
niles1967 said:
An 8" French is still small. They get huge and tall. Mine is over 12" and is still growing. My tank is a 350g and that seems a bit tight for him. Two in a 225g does not sound like a very good idea.
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Sorry I didn't mean putting two French angels in my 225g. In fact, a 225g is too small even just for one (mine is already looking a bit cramped in it). I'm planning a 400g build around the end of this year, and that's why I'm thinking if it's possible to add another french to form a pair with my existing one.

I didn't think much about the space requirement before, but now that SDguy brought it up, I think for a pair to live comfortably and develop dominance, at least 700-800g of space is required. Very few people have tanks that large and certainly not me, so I will give up that thought. Unless some day I get rich...
 
alton said:
I would try a very small one, hopefully it has not sexed yet or is still a female? It will be trial an error, just have a place can give a great fish to if it does not work out.

http://sealifeinc.net/catalog/produ...d=315&osCsid=cb890b1f5236d63cafd797a3e338b5d5
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Thanks for the suggestion. I may have missed the window of pairing up French angels, as mine is already 8" and in full adult coloration. I could certainly try to introduce a smaller one and hope for the best, but I would hate myself to death if they fight and one of them ends up dead.

Maybe during my upgrade I could give this an attempt, since my current French angel has to go into the QT while I tear down the current DT. I can put an egg crate between the two angels and see how they interact.
 
That sounds like an awesome experiment to be. Please keep us posted as that would be a beautiful event if the pairing is successful.
 
I have a pair of scribbled angels. I first separated them with eggcrate while in qt. Now they're doing fine in the dt. Btw one is about 5",the other 3". Intend to upgrade to a longer tank next year
Will likely replace the emperor and french angels with a male crosshatch trigger
 
angelfish7 said:
I have a pair of scribbled angels. I first separated them with eggcrate while in qt. Now they're doing fine in the dt. Btw one is about 5",the other 3". Intend to upgrade to a longer tank next year
Will likely replace the emperor and french angels with a male crosshatch trigger
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've seen photos of your scribbled and they are beautiful. The problem with French is that it's not sexually dimorphic.

Everyone's suggestion is spot-on; I don't have large enough tank to house a pair of French. They cover a lot of ground and unless the tank approaches 1,000g, they probably won't be happy.
 
geaux xman said:
do you have any aggression issues with your single french?
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No, not really. He doesn't really harass anyone. Occasionally he would drive another fish away if the fish bumps into him or something. That happens maybe once a week or so, but there's no real, constant aggression that I observe.
 
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