What size tank for two dwarf angelfish?

khanb31

khanb31

SLim Jim
Hello hello,

Well today I bought my first dwarf angelfish. It is a beautiful and young african flameback angelfish. hes in the QT for now....

Now since I absolutely love these guys, I was curious on what size tank I would need to house two different types of dwarf angelfish? Lets say, a lemonpeel and a flame angel? Those two would need a pretty descent sized tank. I would guess around a 65 gallon would suffice. However, This is where the discussion should start.

Thoughts?

Jim
 
The bigger the tank, the better but mixing those angels will likely result in compatibility issues. I have a flame and a flameback in a 120 but there's plenty of caves, nooks/crannies, and lots of other fish so it tends to alleviate some aggression from the larger flame.
 
A 48" footprint tank would be ideal--even the narrow 55g size--but these guys are small enough that some of the 36" sizes would work as well, providing there are not tons of other fish. The 65g you mentioned is a good 36" footprint tank...

I wouldn't keep a Lemonpeel in a full out reef tank--they can among the most nippy and problematic of pygmy angels IME... Too bad, as they are really pretty little fish...

And as Kes mentioned, good rockwork with nookies and crannies and caves can really help alleviate aggression...
 
55 is plenty for 2 dwarfs.

You could manage a 29 if you trained them to tolerate each other.

I had a 29 with a 2" coral beauty and a 1.5' flame and a few others. My first Marine tank.

Always loved the Angels.
 
you had a 29 gallon tank with 2 angels in it eh? how exactly did you "train" them?

that seems to be pushing it. Mine is a ~35 gallon so that MIGHT work. The tank is 30 inches wide so I guess another 6 inches wouldnt be too bad. Anyone else want to put in their 2 cents on this?
 
A 29g (30" long) is pretty small for two active pygmy angels, let alone other fish, period. But you're never going to convince everyone of this. That's just how it is...

Once you see even these little fish hurl themselves back and forth in a 180g or 240g then you can understand better.

Depth also plays a factor--that 65g with a 18" depth makes for a decent amount of rock for the fish to maneuver through--kinda like a jungle gym of excercise. Wheras the more narrow but longer 55g at 48" just gives them sheer space to hurl back and forth... Either one works, but then compare it to what is available in a 29g, 30" long....!
 
It was a 29g with an airstone-driven undergravel filter. First fish were two tiny yellow-tailed blue damsels and two tiny dominos. These were my “cycle” fish.

One domino and one YTB damsel survived the cycle. I then added a false percula and a gramma.

After about two months, I added a small Coral Beauty. Then a firefish.

Couple of months later, I happened to see a tiny (1.5") flame angel at my LFS that was so cute, I just had to have him in my tank.

Took him home, dripped him, then dropped him in. Keep in mind, this was my first SW tank, and I had not yet learned the painful lesson to QT all fish.

Anyway, my CB immediately went after the flame, putting him into shock.

Realizing that this was bad, I immediately went to my LFS and bought a "tank divider" to separate the two fish into their own section of the tank.

The flame eventually calmed down and started eating within a few days, but I didn't want to keep the tank divided like that and I wanted both fish.

So I came up with an idea of buying an eggcrate panel, cutting it down to size and replaced the penn-plax tank divider with the eggcrate.

The idea was to allow the flame and the coral beauty time to get used to seeing each other without being able to attack one another.

About three weeks later, after it became apparent that the CB was no longer interested in snuffing my Flame, I took out the eggcrate.

And that's my "how do you train fish to not kill each other" story.

Hope you liked it.
 
Good story, Bruno--very cleaver. And it worked well. You were inventive and wise...

Please in the future--no more "cycle" fish, huh? I think this is so cruel--ammonia poising is a cruel death. And particularly since we can add pure inorganic ammonia, or a piece of decaying shrimp from the seafood counter, and start the cycle just as well without sacrificing life that was captured in the ocean, flown across the globe, but only to be sentenced to a terrible death...
 
"Please in the future--no more "cycle" fish, huh?"

No doubt. Please remember this was 1980. I was 19 and stupid.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12881634#post12881634 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bruno3047
"Please in the future--no more "cycle" fish, huh?"

No doubt. Please remember this was 1980. I was 19 and stupid.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I hear you--I can remember cycling my first big tank--180g's in 1986 or so--with yellow tangs. They would get terrible ich from the toxic ammonia shock, but would often make it through alive--testament to the durbility of the tang...

I am glad we have come a long way since then...!
 
BTW. The idea of using damsels to cycle a tank came out of a how-to book on starting a Marine tank.

Imagine that.
 
well at least i know that I can make it work. I was thinking the tank separator was the only way to do it properly. apparently it worked. That gives me hope yet that a 65 gallon can really work. Or maybe even a 46 gallon? hmmmm....we'll see.

Now, how long is the standard QT time? I REALLY want to put my flameback into my DT....however hes in the QT right now. How long should I wait?
 
I always thought that in my 75 gallon tank I would never be able to do 2 dwarf angels. Right now I have a coral beauty. Does anyone know what could possibly work best with him?
 
Well thats what the discussion is about. I would imagine you would be able to put any other kind of dwarf angelfish in with the CB. I love the lemonpeels, cherubs, flamebacks, flames, etc... try one of those!
 
use a spaghetti strainer for a few hours or section off a part of the tank? Im sure there are a lot of ways to do it.
 
I was thinking. Flame angels arent so hardy and I had one about a year ago that died for no apparent reason. I think I'm going to go with something else if I go with an angel this time. The only angelfish I like are the koran and Imperator angels as juveniles and those arent dwarfs. They also dont seem to be so reefsafe, so it looks like I'm out of ideas on adding an angel.
 
I kept multiple angels in my old 65g without issue, and now I've got a coral beauty and a Potter's in my 90g. IME a 48" tank is more suited to keeping two dwarf angels long-term - more rock and swimming space makes for better neighbors. My two don't bother with each other at all, but the CB did take a week or so to fully relax when the Potter's was introduced (initially there was some chasing/hiding, but once the CB realized the Potter's was going to stand up for herself he stopped).
 
Re: What size tank for two dwarf angelfish?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12880900#post12880900 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by khanb31
Hello hello,

Well today I bought my first dwarf angelfish. It is a beautiful and young african flameback angelfish. hes in the QT for now....

Now since I absolutely love these guys, I was curious on what size tank I would need to house two different types of dwarf angelfish? Lets say, a lemonpeel and a flame angel? Those two would need a pretty descent sized tank. I would guess around a 65 gallon would suffice. However, This is where the discussion should start.

Thoughts?

Jim
Click to expand...

Yea that is a great fish. What store did you pick it up from? How is it doing?
 
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