Mixing angelfish, aggression, how much is too much?

[Claus84]

Hi all,

I've added my flame angel and lemonpeel to my 8x2x2 reef yesterday and there has been some conflict since, torn fins and following each other around for the most part. The lemonpeel started off as the aggressor but it looks like the flame is taking over. I understand some aggression is to be expected and may or may not subside, my question is how long do I let this continue before pulling one of them out? I have a lot of rockwork and have specifically designed it with the angels in mind, with plenty of hideways and swimthroughs, broken sight lines etc.

I also have a coral beauty and a majestic to add in (currently housed together), the CB is larger than the other two dwarfs and is fairly aggressive (tries to stand up to the majestic) hence not putting it in at the same time. Before pulling one of the others out is it worth putting in the majestic and CB, to see if it diffuses some of the aggro, or is that likely to just make things worse? My hope is that the will have (literally) bigger things to worry about in the majestic than fighting amonst themselves.

I'm super attached to these fish, they are all captive bred and i've grown them on and had them for years in different systems and I really don't want them to come to harm. It is however no longer sustainable keeping them in seperate systems so when the seal went on my 300g back in feb I vowed to finally combine them all in the replacement tank. Another wrinkle to this is that the fish / my systems have "T.B" Mycobacterium marinum, so I can't rehome them.

Aside from the angels the only other fish are an azure damsel, a common clown pair and a kole tang. The kole tang was living with the flame angel and is currently the only fish that shows active TB symptoms (fluid retention) but eats and behaves normally (and has done for years), this will be going in last but tbh I am in two minds as to whether to euthanise or not at this stage but thats a different conversation.

Thanks

Nick

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

If it were me, I would consider adding the coral beauty and majestic in now to spread out aggression. If the aggression doesn’t subside once those are added, I would put the main aggressor in an acclamation box for a week or two to see if that helps.

 

[RobertK]

Acclimation box is a great idea if you have one. I put all new fish in one for a couple days before releasing them into the tank. I got mine from Biota, which is where I bought my 3 tank raised dwarf angels - coral beauty, multibar and purple masked. They all get along fine in a 4' 70 gallon tank. The CB and multibar were acquired at the same time and have always got along well. The purple masked was added at a later date, there was some aggression from the CB first few days but that subsided pretty quickly. I'd give them a little more time together. Not sure if my experience was different though as my 3 angels were all juveniles when introduced to the tank, and yours are more mature.

 

[Claus84]

thanks both, I added in the majestic which does seem to have settled things down between my flame and lemonpeel, going to let them settle then add in the coral beauty. The lemonpeel seems to be the troublemaker but the CB is larger and equally aggressive, will most likely use the acclimation box trick

 

[joseph scott]

How are those dwarf angels doing now? I have a harem of three flame angels in one tank and a lone lemon peel in another. Im upgrading to one larger tank and want to combine all livestock. I was thinking i should get two small lemon peels first to make a harem first so as to spread aggression?

 

[CopepodsForSale]

Hi all,

I've added my flame angel and lemonpeel to my 8x2x2 reef yesterday and there has been some conflict since, torn fins and following each other around for the most part. The lemonpeel started off as the aggressor but it looks like the flame is taking over. I understand some aggression is to be expected and may or may not subside, my question is how long do I let this continue before pulling one of them out? I have a lot of rockwork and have specifically designed it with the angels in mind, with plenty of hideways and swimthroughs, broken sight lines etc.

I also have a coral beauty and a majestic to add in (currently housed together), the CB is larger than the other two dwarfs and is fairly aggressive (tries to stand up to the majestic) hence not putting it in at the same time. Before pulling one of the others out is it worth putting in the majestic and CB, to see if it diffuses some of the aggro, or is that likely to just make things worse? My hope is that the will have (literally) bigger things to worry about in the majestic than fighting amonst themselves.

I'm super attached to these fish, they are all captive bred and i've grown them on and had them for years in different systems and I really don't want them to come to harm. It is however no longer sustainable keeping them in seperate systems so when the seal went on my 300g back in feb I vowed to finally combine them all in the replacement tank. Another wrinkle to this is that the fish / my systems have "T.B" Mycobacterium marinum, so I can't rehome them.

Aside from the angels the only other fish are an azure damsel, a common clown pair and a kole tang. The kole tang was living with the flame angel and is currently the only fish that shows active TB symptoms (fluid retention) but eats and behaves normally (and has done for years), this will be going in last but tbh I am in two minds as to whether to euthanise or not at this stage but thats a different conversation.

Thanks

Nick

Curious to hear @Claus84's update too. The harem-first approach makes sense in theory spreading aggression across multiple targets usually helps more than adding single fish one at a time. Adding all the lemonpeels together so none of them is established as "the resident" is probably your best shot.

 

[56longroof]

I have a flame,lemon peel, and venustus in my tank. They mostly just ignore each other. Every once in a while the flame and venustus will chase each other but its short lived.