Male spotbreast angelfish getting a rude welcome

[Brisay01]

Hi All. I purchased a FEMALE spotbreast angel and have her alone in Qt for about 2 days . She had been in there basically hiding since I acclimated and put her in the tank. (Which I know is not unusual)

Today , a MALE spotbreast became available and I purchased and released him into the Qt with the female . Almost immediately , the female came out from hiding . She immediately began sizing up the male and they both began posturing and squaring off with each other as if to fight . After the initial introduction , they settled down and began swimming chasing each other a bit and even both began eating .

I checked in again on them this evening and the female is chasing the male and tormenting him nonstop . She won’t leave him alone and is doing everything short of biting him ( although a couple of scales on the male looked a little damaged ) . I ended up putting in a tank divider for the meantime to protect the male .

Does anyone have any info on keeping a male and female spotbreast angel together ? Anything I have read says it’s actually encouraged to keep them in pairs or one male with several females . I thought if anything, the male would be the aggressive one. Any advice would be appreciated .

 

[Diesel]

If the divider ain’t doing it after a week or two it might never happen that they play nice.

 

[Brisay01]

If the divider ain’t doing it after a week or two it might never happen that they play nice.

Ugh that’s discouraging. So you think I should leave them divided for a full one to two weeks then try again ?

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

Ugh that’s discouraging. So you think I should leave them divided for a full one to two weeks then try again ?

I haven't done that with angels, but I've successfully done it with tangs. I have a spot breast female as well - love it!

 

[Brisay01]

I haven't done that with angels, but I've successfully done it with tangs. I have a spot breast female as well - love it!

Yeah it really is a beautiful fish . As is the male also. I Hope they will figure things out . I guess I’m just surprised because I did a bit of research before making the decision to get a male and female and didn’t expect this .

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

By the way - one thing I noticed when I get her into my display tank. . . even though it is a planktivore and completely reef safe the corals definitely did not like her there. I had tremendous polyp extension on my acros and that's changed. She never nips at the coral, but it's like they know an angel is present, if that's possible.

 

[Brisay01]

By the way - one thing I noticed when I get her into my display tank. . . even though it is a planktivore and completely reef safe the corals definitely did not like her there. I had tremendous polyp extension on my acros and that's changed. She never nips at the coral, but it's like they know an angel is present, if that's possible.

Ok thanks for the info . The tank she’ll ( or both ) be going to has about 90% LPS. Acans, a bunch of euphyllia, and a few other corals. I’ll hope the all remain unaffected .

 

[Diesel]

Ugh that’s discouraging. So you think I should leave them divided for a full one to two weeks then try again ?

It can happen and a good thing is it happen in a QT.
Give it time and they can become a awesome pair.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

It's possible that ,as the female was added first she wants to be the dominant male as it's her territory first in the qt, so the male and her could be fighting for dominance. It's possible the male could turn female if he's being over dominated and the female could turn male, I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that can happen with genicanthus Angels. I'm not sure exactly what you should do as I've never kept any genicanthus angel so it's bets you get advice from someone who's actually kept them rather than me on what to do. Hope this kinda helps

 

[Diesel]

It's possible that ,as the female was added first she wants to be the dominant male as it's her territory first in the qt, so the male and her could be fighting for dominance. It's possible the male could turn female if he's being over dominated and the female could turn male, I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that can happen with genicanthus Angels. I'm not sure exactly what you should do as I've never kept any genicanthus angel so it's bets you get advice from someone who's actually kept them rather than me on what to do. Hope this kinda helps

Females can turn male but not the other way around.
When I pair up genicanthus I just get two females and one will turn male after a while.
I had over the years three pairs that I purchased as boy/girl but after about a year the male was going after the female and it wasn’t to play nice.

 

[Angel_Anthias lover]

Not to be rude in anyway but it is possible, but it might be just that it's very rare.

 

[Diesel]

Not to be rude in anyway but it is possible, but it might be just that it's very rare.

That must be a rare event, many hobbyist experienced different and when two males are present the weakest doesn’t have much time to turn female as the fight ends up either in a male dying or be removed by the hobbyist.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Males can and do revert back to being females if they are not socially dominant. It is actually pretty common.

The female was in qt first and viewed it as her territory. A qt doesn't give a lot of space for things to naturally work out without much damage. Meep them seperated during qt. Things should be better when they get to the dt.

 

[Brisay01]

Males can and do revert back to being females if they are not socially dominant. It is actually pretty common.

The female was in qt first and viewed it as her territory. A qt doesn't give a lot of space for things to naturally work out without much damage. Meep them seperated during qt. Things should be better when they get to the dt.

Thanks everyone for the advice . When I place them in the Dt, I assume I should put them in at the exact same time right ?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Thanks everyone for the advice . When I place them in the Dt, I assume I should put them in at the exact same time right ?

Correct.