Odd Angelfish?

[mclc26]

I have a Pygmy Angel and a Flame Angel in my tank...Looks like the Flame has been chasing after the little pygmy. The guy at my LFS tells me I should get another Angel to keep an odd number (3) of them in the tank to lessen the chances of aggression towards each other...Is this true? If so, any recommendations for another Angel? They had a Potter's Angel in the store which looked pretty cool.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this...

 

[philip5510]

2 angels is too much for a 70g, they shouldnt have sold you the second

 

[mclc26]

I do plan on upgrading to a 300g+ tank in the coming year...In any event, as a 'rule of thumb', is it still better to have 3 Angels as opposed to 2 Angels to lessen the likelihood of fighting?

 

[saltycreefer]

Potters are horrible reef fish, they will pick at everything. I would try a flameback or a cherub angel.

 

[AJ69]

The Flameback (Brazil) IMO

 

[Kawaii]

I really like my eibli angel and it was fine with all of the zoos and mushrooms but picked at my open brain. The LFS said it would probably be a 1 in 20 chance that it would do that since it was so small, oh well. I still recommend it since it will probably not pick at corals because it is a very beautiful fish.
here is a picture of mine:

my other angel (in a separate tank) is a coral beauty and they are very pretty but can also pick at corals. ours does not disturb any of our corals at all and we've had her since january of this year.

here's the coral beauty:

 

[mclc26]

Thanks for the suggestions...As I have a Flame and a Cherub already, are you all saying I should another Angel? and another Flame at that? I like the shots of the Eilbi Angel there.

I haven't had much success with Coral Beauties. Had one in my 24g Nano which disappeared after about 3 days - same thing happened when I tried one in my 70g last month. I think they are beautiful fish, but just haven't had much luck with them.

 

[Kawaii]

Yeah the Eibli is my favorite angel now and they're not very expensive, we got ours for $35. he is so fun to watch, always scooting around in between the rocks into little crevices. here is a clearer photo i found of one online, mine looks exactly the same but my photos don't do him justice.

 

[jpslickorocks]

Are you seriously going to put a third angel in a 70 gallon tank? I wouldn't.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

The 'odd number fish rule' is common in freshwater (some cichlids, etc), but doesnt usually work so well in salt, only because most tanks are too small to give 3+ semi territorial fish of related species enough room to get away from eachother. The idea is that with 3 rather than 2 the aggression is spread out more, so no 1 fish bares the brunt of an attack.

But... it doesnt work all the time. The most dominant fish kills 1, then the other. Or, they all fight and continually stress eachother out since theres not enough room to get away from one another, and they die from fighting + stress.

Best solutions- find a new home for one of the 2 youve already got, or get a bigger tank Soon, but Before you add another fish. You can try adding a 3rd, but its still risky...

 

[rmougey]

I'd suggest that adding an additional angel to that small of a tank will simply increase the aggression level. As stated above, it;s probably best to remove one of the fish from the tank. When that bigger tank actually is setup and cycled, then you can look at adding another angel.

I don't buy the rule of 3's for marine fish, as a general practice.

-Rob

 

[jmaneyapanda]

agreed. if you add a third, youll end up with 2 dead angels.

 

[snorvich]

One dwarf in that size tank is sufficient. More than one will result in death(s) as they are intolerant of competition in their defined territory. Removal is preferred. Total rearrangement is an alternative that may or may not work.

 

[TitoTee]

Are you guys speaking from experience - like, did you try to put three dwarfs together and then they killed each other? Or, are you going by the literature? I 've read the same things also but I've never tried stocking more than one dwarf. I think if the tank was a 180 you'd probably get away with stocking 4 or more dwarfs.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

a friend of mine put a lemonpeel in a 90 gallon with a coral beauty, and the lemon peel was near dead in about 3 hours. aftee that he tried a flame, and after that an argi, all died due to the coral cbeauty. Now he couldve had a very aggressive individual fish, but, they do not like competition for their grazing turkf, so 3 centros in a 75 would be asking for it, in my experienec and opinion.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8299081#post8299081 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TitoTee
Are you guys speaking from experience - like, did you try to put three dwarfs together and then they killed each other? Or, are you going by the literature?

When a person consistently reads the same information over and over from both experienced hobbiests and reputable, more scientific sources, why are they still compelled to try it out for themselves? The odds that that persons experience is going to fall in line with everyone else's experiences is Really high, and even if the fish didnt kill eachother, it would still be a highly unnatural and stressful environment. Talk to a public aquarist, a hobby 'expert', or go see for yourself how much territory these animals actually defend in the wild. Ive seen fighting take place in aquariums, even in tanks that were thought to be large enough to support such a combination, and yes Ive seen tanks where the fish seemed to get along OK short term, but the odds of failure (ie killing your animals) is very high.

 

[Sheol]

Also, be aware that C. eibli is not regarded as a ree-safe angel. In fact, they are in the top 3d of destructive Centropyge for reef tanks. just a thought..

Matthew