[beano129]

Hi folks,

its been a while since I've posted on here. This is a post asking 2 questions... 1 is about the safety of one of my little fish and then the other is about stocking with compatible fish.

I'm facing moving soon as I'm wondering about taking the opportunity to re-stock my tank.

I've got a 152 Litre (40 US Gal) tank with:-
1 x Koi Angel
1 x Marble Angel
4 x Widow Tetras

Q1. What I'm noticing is that the Tetras are now getting very 'nippy' and my poor little Marble Angel is really starting to suffer. The Tetras are nipping at his fins and they are starting to look really tatty now. He's about 7 months old, only about 3 cm from mouth to end of his caudal fin and 5cm from top of his dorsal fin to the bottom of his anal fin. He's not really grown much at all in the 7 month's he been in there.

Is there anything I can do? I don't want to give any of the fish up but I'm fearing for his overall safety and stress levels.

The Koi Angel I have is 5.5 cm from mouth to end of caudal fin and then nearly 9cm from top of dorsal fin to bottom of anal fin. being as he's the biggest in the tank he seems to get plenty of the food when I feed.

The tetras are all about 5cm in length (I'm told that's nearly fully grown) and the oldest at 11 months.

Q2. So I want to either get the Marble angel a little friend as he seems exceptionally friendly in general an not at all aggressive (I do understand if that's down to him being the smallest) but then I would also like to get another 2-4 Tetras and then maybe even another 1 or 2 different species.

What other species could I get that would live harmoniously with the fish that I've already got?

I have plants, rocks and some driftwood in the tank and do not put any salt in the water when I change so it's a completely freshwater tank.

Any Advise would be really appreciated!!

 

[jaysee]

Well, tetras are schooling fish so the fact that there are only 4 is likely to be contributing to their nipping behavior. I would not add a 3rd angelfish. Once the angels are grown they will fill out the 40. As for other fish, I would go with some corys for the bottom.

 

[Boredomb]

Tetras are schooling fish as Jaysee already mention but the Widow be it the black or albino are especially nippy. About the only thing you can do is increase the school of them to spread out the aggressiveness. Also they usually shouldn't be keeped with Angels cause of their long fins due to the nipping issues they have.

 

[beano129]

Hey Jaysee and Boredomb,

Thank you so much for the responses. I'm certain that my marble angel isn't fully grown but the koi angel is definitely a whole lot more... like 2-3 times the size of the marble angel.

My problem with Cory's is that I've bought so many in the past and they never seem to last more than about 6 weeks. I'm so meticulous about my tank I know for a fact that all my levels are excellent (Ammonia, pH, Nitrate and Nitrite) and I've got an eHeim 2217 canister filter pumping 1000 litres per hour through it and I do 2 weekly 20% water changes.

What I would like to do is buy 6 cory's and then 4 more tetras but I'm so worried about my little marble angel - he's been in my tank now for months and not even looked like he's gotten any bigger and yesterday we saw the tetras really laying into him. I can't stand it!! :-(

Rich

 

[jaysee]

I think it would be best to swap out the tetras for a less nippy species like boredomb suggested, rather than get more like I suggested. If you get more, it will either alleviate the problem or make it worse.


Sent from Petguide.com App

 

[beano129]

Thanks jaysee,

Well I guess that would leave me with a couple of additional questions...
1) What fish could be good co-inhabitants with Angels? If i were to get rid of the Tetra's and look at 2 new species which species get on well? Do loach fish co-inhabit well?
2) If I increase the tetra numbers to say 10... would that be a better school size?
3) If I increase the school of tetra's and leave the 2 angels, what would be one other species of fish that would work well with the two of them?

Thanks very much though Jaysee I really appreciate your help!!

Rich

 

[BarbH]

Thanks jaysee,

Well I guess that would leave me with a couple of additional questions...
1) What fish could be good co-inhabitants with Angels? If i were to get rid of the Tetra's and look at 2 new species which species get on well? Do loach fish co-inhabit well?
2) If I increase the tetra numbers to say 10... would that be a better school size?
3) If I increase the school of tetra's and leave the 2 angels, what would be one other species of fish that would work well with the two of them?

Thanks very much though Jaysee I really appreciate your help!!

Rich

To answer your questions
1. Fish that would work well, if you wanted to do another type of tetra instead of the black widow tetras, you could do a school of rummy nose tetras I would suggest a group of at least 12, or you could do a school of cardinals or rosy tetras are a few that come to mind. Also there are pencil fish and some rasaboras that would work. I would suggest checking out the fish profiles and see what would work in your set up. You will want to stay away from fish that tend to be nippy like barbs and some tetras like black widow tetra.
2. If you decide to keep the black widow tetras a larger school may help with the nipping. In a larger school they may be more comfortable and keep the aggression to the group. There is however no guarentee this will work and for myself I do plan my stocking around my angelfish.