Pairing My Two P. diacanthus

naterealbig

naterealbig

Premium Member
Hi everyone,

I have been keeping marine fish for about 15 years now, starting the hobby initially interested in fish, moving into SPS keeping, and now my latest obsession has been keeping fish in pairs or groups.

I have recently procured two Indo-Pacific Regal Angelfish, the first a female, about 5 - 5.5 inches long. The second, about 2.5-3 inches long, and looking like it might be a male. It appears the smaller has an accentuated gill spine, although it might just be in my head :) .

Either way, both P. diacanthus are eating well, and enjoying a mix of NLS pellets, formula I ( and II, Angel Formula, and Prime Reef), PE & Dr. G's Mysis, and spirulana flake. After making sure the smaller angel was eating well, I placed it in the QT with the larger female. The QT is a 30g with bio-ball filtration, and 2 large identical plastic rocks (one for each section), and the angels are separated with a sheet of egg-crate. There currently is no light on this tank, although it receives ambient light from the coral QT next to it.

The larger female of course is showing aggression towards the smaller one currently. My goal is to pair these two fish. Well....pair may be the wrong word. My goal is to condition these 2 fish to live together in captivity in the same tank, without killing each other :) . I am asking for a few words of advice and tips, on helping me achieve this.

Regards,

Nathaniel
 
I know why no one is replying....there aren't any pics!

After a few days, the larger female has calmed down a little bit. I decided to take the divider out, and see how things go. What do you think?

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xONnmT-m0Xo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I think you are right. My 2 Picasso Perc's were extremely agressive towards a Mimic Tang I had in the same QT. When they went into the display the aggression subsided completely. Hopefully the same will be true with the angels.

Over the course of the day, the aggression between the Angels seems to have diminished a bit. I don't have my hopes up, but for now things are OK. As long as the smaller fish isn't getting beat up and is feeding, I think I will call it good.
 
Great timing! im doing this very thing on Sunday....!

Current angel has been resident for just over a year, will report back tomorrow
 
Inklinkerman said:
Great timing! im doing this very thing on Sunday....!

Current angel has been resident for just over a year, will report back tomorrow
Click to expand...

I presume you are talking about Regals? They are my absolute favorite fish! What is the size of the fish you have had for a year? Male or female? Do you already have the second fish, or will it be a new addition? How large is the new fish? Male or female? Will you be taking any precautions during the introduction?
 
Update Day 2

Update Day 2

Things are looking even better than yesterday. The smaller Regal is swimming around the tank more, and the larger is picking on it less. Feeding time.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LPgdJ_nZ7SM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Yes I am talking about regals.

The resident fish is a Maldive caught yellow belly, and is approx. 4". From the gill spur I have assumed it is female... assumed being the operative word.

The fish to be introduced is a misbar paciffic regal and is larger by around an inch (not ideal but misbars don't come around that often). The gill spur is significantly longer than the resident fish so I think(hope) this fish is a established male. I have been planning the introduction for 3 mths now.
A mirroris placed at one side of the tank and the resident has been displaying to it's reflection agressively. I have egg crate in standby but haven't decided to use it straight away or wait and see. The fish are closer in size than I would prefer and both have lost the juvenile rear dorsal eye spot. Not ideal again.

I expect trouble from the resident P.Imperator too, prehaps more than the diacanthus.

The ideal is that the two pair, with the resident as female and new fish as male.

But it will be tricky..:)
 
Great to hear! I really fancy the misbars. Where did you find the mis-bar? Is he currently eating? Best of luck to you, and I think you should post some pics of both fish. I would be delighted if you updated your progress with the 2 fish here.

You are right about the Emperor, they are very dominate fish; even more so concerning other angels. Be standing by with the egg crate, the Angels fight dirty :) .
 
I got the misbar from my local specialist lfs. They are well known for special/unusual fish.

he has been eating very well in the lfs. I will post a video ASAP.
 
watch
 
Ink - to embed: click on the "share" button underneath your video. When you do this a highlighted link will pop up - you don't want to use this link. To the right of the link, there is a button labeled "embed". Click on the embed button, and the link changes. Copy and paste this new link :)
 
Will do later, doing this on an android atm.

How long did you keep them behind eggcrate? They seem to be looking at each other peacefully now..
 
The new male is absolutely stunning! With a little time and patience, I'm sure things will work out. It looks as though the Emperator is minding his own business, which is good. Separating the fish is best I think, as the stress of fighting may decrease the chances of keeping the Regal feeding, which is more important than anything.

The female in my tank showed a great deal of aggression towards the smaller when it was added. It actually tried to attack the smaller one through the egg-crate. Over the course of a couple of days, the larger Regal stopped trying to attack the smaller one, and at that point, removed the egg-crate.

It is normal for a lot of fish to be intimidated by a new addition, and being of the same species only amplifies this instinct. A few days of allowing the new fish to adjust to the new environment, and establish a bit of a territory will help immensely. I have found that the more confident the Regal is, the better it will do :). A few days, and all should be well.

When I started this thread, I was really hoping to get some feedback from others who had done this. I have read through a few threads and seen aquarists who had successfully kept 2 Angelfish of the same species together, but couldn't find any real specifics or the "protocol" to their approach.
 
How long did you keep them behind eggcrate? They seem to be looking at each other peacefully now..
Click to expand...

I only had them separated by egg-crate for 3 days, before I removed it. It may have been a little premature, but it worked out OK. Perhaps the difference in size helped things along, but I wouldn't be so sure. The difference in size theoretically should theoretically help in establishing the hierarchy between the fish, so there should be less fighting. The drawback to the size difference is that the smaller fish will flee, which encourages the larger fish to chase.

I noticed that the larger Regal picked on the smaller one, until the smaller one stopped running, and stood it's ground. Giving a little time to adapt to the new surroundings should help with this, lends itself to the confidence of the fish, which I mentioned earlier.

Keep up the good work! There is only one thing more stunning than a diacanthus: That's two :)
 
They look pretty good so far, and they are both nice and fat! . There is much less aggression between yours then there was mine. Letting them see each other through the egg-crate while acclimating seems like it helped. They were able to get used to each other, without having a chance to chase or nip.
 
Here they are day three. It seems like they are getting along better as time passes. Funny, when they were separated, they hid all of the time. Now that they are together, they seem to be swimming out in the open much more.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kr7dEdaA7uQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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