Aadler
New member
There are a few serious lovers of Angelfish out there and after searching through some old threads and reading about the ethics of keeping multiple angelfish in the same tank long-term (3-4 years for arguement's sake) I wanted a new discussion to see if anyone else has had recent horror stories or more importantly positives to add to communal knowledge.
This is the general feeling I have gotten from reading older threads:
1) Holacanthus (Queen, Blue, Clarion, Passer etc [not exhaustive]) are the most aggressive genus. You should not expect to keep these fish (possibly excluding Rock Beauty?) into adulthood without them killing other angels that are not willing to give ground, and possibly will just kill other large angels outright due to lack of territory in the aquarium.
2) Pomacanthus (Imperor, Asfur, French, Majestic etc [not exhaustive]) would be considered the 2nd most aggressive genus and the more aggressive (Emperor, Asfur?, French?) should NOT be mixed with Holocanthus (or each other) as they are likely to kill each other due to their aggressive nature as adults.
3) The other (I will call it 6) Genus' may be ranked in aggression as such: Chaetodontoplus, Apolemichthys, Pygoplites, Genicanthus, Centropyge/Paracentropyge. This ranking is really just my guess as I found very little actual threads on these genus' aggression. I put centropyge last due to size as I had not found reported issues on a dwarf abusing a large angel, and the aggression of certain centropyge is will documented in hundreds of threads.
I should note that it is harder than I thought to rate aggression by genus as looking through which fish belong to which genus it seems there are very shy and aggressive fish within each family, except for Holacanthus which seems they are all aggressive and pygoplites :idea:.
4) Adding aggressive Angels last is ideal and varying Angel size is important as well. I did not find anyone saying dump 6 large (7-8" plus) angels in a 300g tank. Having juvi's, changing and young adults is likely the best way to keep multiple angels in the same tank for a relative long term (3-4 years).
5) If you are choosing to mix angels in your reef/fowlr it is advisable that you have a backup plan for the more aggressive angels in case you need to yank someone due to over aggression.
The discussion I am most interested in is how multiple members of the same genus interact versus picking one Angel from each genus. Is there more aggression within genus or less? Or is it the other way around, are they more territorial with angels out of their own genus. Do they behave differently with fish not naturally occurring in the same geographic location?
I feel it is important to note that imo each tank is extremely different, and I do not wish anyone to take a positive story from this discussion and feel they will automatically have the same success.
This is the general feeling I have gotten from reading older threads:
1) Holacanthus (Queen, Blue, Clarion, Passer etc [not exhaustive]) are the most aggressive genus. You should not expect to keep these fish (possibly excluding Rock Beauty?) into adulthood without them killing other angels that are not willing to give ground, and possibly will just kill other large angels outright due to lack of territory in the aquarium.
2) Pomacanthus (Imperor, Asfur, French, Majestic etc [not exhaustive]) would be considered the 2nd most aggressive genus and the more aggressive (Emperor, Asfur?, French?) should NOT be mixed with Holocanthus (or each other) as they are likely to kill each other due to their aggressive nature as adults.
3) The other (I will call it 6) Genus' may be ranked in aggression as such: Chaetodontoplus, Apolemichthys, Pygoplites, Genicanthus, Centropyge/Paracentropyge. This ranking is really just my guess as I found very little actual threads on these genus' aggression. I put centropyge last due to size as I had not found reported issues on a dwarf abusing a large angel, and the aggression of certain centropyge is will documented in hundreds of threads.
I should note that it is harder than I thought to rate aggression by genus as looking through which fish belong to which genus it seems there are very shy and aggressive fish within each family, except for Holacanthus which seems they are all aggressive and pygoplites :idea:.
4) Adding aggressive Angels last is ideal and varying Angel size is important as well. I did not find anyone saying dump 6 large (7-8" plus) angels in a 300g tank. Having juvi's, changing and young adults is likely the best way to keep multiple angels in the same tank for a relative long term (3-4 years).
5) If you are choosing to mix angels in your reef/fowlr it is advisable that you have a backup plan for the more aggressive angels in case you need to yank someone due to over aggression.
The discussion I am most interested in is how multiple members of the same genus interact versus picking one Angel from each genus. Is there more aggression within genus or less? Or is it the other way around, are they more territorial with angels out of their own genus. Do they behave differently with fish not naturally occurring in the same geographic location?
I feel it is important to note that imo each tank is extremely different, and I do not wish anyone to take a positive story from this discussion and feel they will automatically have the same success.
