Angelfish pair being aggressive with each other?

mstx2003

I hope this is the best place to post, I have a question about spawning fish, even though I don't want to breed them.
I have two black marble Angelfish in an 80 gallon community tank. Several weeks ago, I noticed one of the angelfish had damaged fins, and ick. I treated for the ick, that problem is solved, but the damaged fin problem is still there. When I sat and watched the tank, I saw it is the other angelfish that is damaging its fins. A few days ago, they spawned, and then promptly ate the eggs, which is fine, I don't have a setup or inclination to breed angelfish.
But how can I stop them from being aggressive with one another? The healthy one is still nipping at the other one, and doing some real damage. Is my only option a tank divider to separate them? I read that they can spawn every few weeks or so, and if this is normal activity for a spawning pair, I'm not sure how much more the injured fish can handle. They do kind of a nipping "dance" going face to face with each other, but then the healthy one starts taking bites out of the injured one's fins. The healthy one also chased the injured one away from the eggs.
Water parameters are fine, temp is about 79 degrees, tank is about 4 ft long, 21 inches high.
Thank you for any suggestions!

1077

Angelfish are cichlids and as such can exhibit rather rough behaivor during spawning activities.

okiemavis

You could try adding some more decorations to break up the line of sight and reduce bullying. Unfortunately, aggression happens, and sometimes the only thing to do is to separate them, at least for a while.

Donna

Two of my six marble veiled angelfish are missing most of the tail and their long dorsal and ventral fins. However, they behave normally: eating avidly, active and alert, hanging around with the others.

The only other folks in this 20 gallon tank are two 2" pictus catfish who ignore the angels.

There is no rot, discoloration or spots. The fins are just eaten away. The water is 0 ammonia with 6.7 pH. There are plenty of hiding places but the nipped ones aren't afraid of the others, they snatch pieces of food from right in front of the full-finned ones.

I don't have the option of putting them in another tank as this is at work, and I'm very fortunate to be able to have this one. Do I just shrug and try to ignore it?

Evan

it may be to late I just joined here but i woulndt let it happen if you care about what there fins look like after the heal, there is only so much the fin can be torn away before it will grow back much shorter and wayvy if even at all. I would get some egg crate at the hardware store and make a divider and split them up it used for florecent lighting. or u can put the in a clear rubbermaid cont 25gallons or so w/spong filte and heater tell you can get something else