Queen Angel & Milletseed butterflyfish

[SC2000]

Queen alway following and somtimes breifly chases the butterflys,

i have had these fish for more than a year now and it has become an issue with territory i believe, have i been lucky or are these fish no compatible long term?



220g Fowler
200lbs Rock

please only people with direct experience and first hand knowledge reply.


thx,

 

[humaguy]

Queens are an alpha fish and assert dominance...how big is she and how big is the butterfly? Butterflies are not aggressive, queen is...

 

[SC2000]

2 of them and they are about 4" long.
do i keep the queen or the butterflys?

 

[humaguy]

up to you...

 

[Triton_Z]

The queen will continue to be aggressive towards all the fish in the tank. I suspect when there is a larger differential in size, the queen may mellow a bit towards the butterfly fish in the tank.

I would continue to watch the aggression and if the butterfly fish stop eating, appear stressed, or physical injury occurs, you'll have to decide whether to move one or the other to keep the peace.

 

[sandwi54]

Angelfish get exponentially aggressive as they age. At 4", the queen is still almost just a juvenile, and already displaying this much aggression will tell you a lot when it gets bigger. It will get worse.

Queen angel, along with emperor and passer, are the alpha angelfish that almost always want to dominate an aquarium. They often present issues with tankmates, especially when they get older. However, they tend to leave fish that are much smaller alone, so what you're experiencing could be temporary.

 

[SDguy]

2 of them and they are about 4" long.
do i keep the queen or the butterflys?

Even though I LOVE queen angels, I'd personally keep the butterflies. The queen will severely limit your tankmate options.

 

[SC2000]

There isnt any fin damage or total fear of the queen thus far, do you think if i add more rock it will calm things down?


Thx, to all of you for your feedback it means alot to me.

 

[sandwi54]

I wouldn't add more rocks. 200lbs of rock in a 220g tank is already a sizeable rockwork. Carribean angels (queen, french, passer) tend to grow quickly and you want to allow enough swimming room.

There's nothing wrong with your queen angel's behavior; it's totally expected. These carribean angels are very territorial in nature. I would rearrange the rockwork to have enough caves for both fish. For FOWLR with aggressive fish, I find that arranging all of the rocks in the middle of the tank, and leaving the front and back empty for fish to swim in laps, helps to alleviate aggression by providing areas where fish don't have to see each other all the time. Below is my tank's aquascaping as an example. Of course, everyone's tank and fish are different.