Urgent HELP needed with Angles!

[BobbieBlushing]

Hello! This is my first time on Myfishtank.com, I read through some threads and it seems that you guys can be very helpful with advice. Well this is my problem:

I have 4 grown gold marble anglefish in my 30g tank along with 2 khuli loachs, I got them when they were only the size of a dime about 1 year ago. Ever since they grew up they have picked some what on each other nothing to serious. 2 are confirmed females because they have layed eggs that never were fertilized. Well for about a week now 1 of them has been getting quite ruff with another one of his size. I noticed that they are starting to really strip the fins of each other. This morning the fight was so bad that I thought I was going to have to catch the mean one and put him in a picher or something just to get him away. I do know alot about Anglefish but never heard anything like this. I thought they were supposed to be PEACEFUL!  I have another 10g with small tetras in it and a 15g tall tank setup that I just got a few days ago, I don't have anything in it yet. I just don't know what to do. I my end just giving 1 or two of them to a pet store in my town just to get them to stop fighting. If you have an Idea please tell me I really need it. Thanks

 

[colesea]

FW Angel fish are one of the great myths of the pet trade. What most people don't know is that angels are a cichlid, and cichlid in fish lingo means aggressive.

Angels are territorial fish, and if you've got four of them in 30 gallons, someone is trying to be top fish and take over the tank and best breeding places. From all I've ever researched, one breeding pair for 30 gallons is all you're gonna get to live comfortably.

Seperating the aggressors is probably your best bet. Angels usually do okay with most tankmates provided they aren't small enough to fit into the angel's mouth. They are carnivors, another fact most people forget when they put itty bitty neons in the tank with their six inch angels.
~~Colesea

 

[BobbieBlushing]

Thanks for the suggestions and info. It makes me feel better that Angels can normally act this way and that it is not just something wrong with the Tank ect. ect.  I have decided to take the problem fish out and put it in a different aquarium perhaps with some other medium sized fishes. I do have one more question, does anyone think it would be a good/bad Idea to have an African yellow cichlid with 2 or 3 grown angles in a 30g tank?? My Grandmother has one of medium size that did not get along with her fish in her big tank so she divided up her 10gallon and put him in a small 2g space. It just drives me insane to think that beutiful fish is living in those conditions. She siad she would give it to me if I had a Place for it.

 

[luvfishies]

No. Not only is the meekest african too hyper and aggressive for angels to cope with, Rift Lake Africans prefer alkaline, hard water, whereas Angels prefer acidic soft water. you can't have both.

 

[Matt Nace]

too aggresive?, you might be right.
cant have both because of water preference? I disagree.

And if the Angels are local bred in hard water, will they need soft, acidic water, or even know what they are missing?

 

[BobbieBlushing]

Hmmm..... Well I can tell you the (we call him Yellow fish) is very shy atleast right now. He was aggressive in a big tank but since she has kept him in this small of a space he has become very shy, will he revert back to his aggression? I don't know. I did think of all this before, thats why he isen't over at my place yet. But the Angles in question a very aggressive compaired to others I have. Plus, to add another variable into the aggression issue, I thought about insead of taking the female aggresser out perhaps take the male out(keep in mind there is only one male, I know this because they have all laid eggs at one time or another and he has tried to fertilized one batch only to eat them later). Perhaps with the only male out of the picture they will settle down.  

As for the issue of water hardness, I have naturally really hard water from tap where I live, I do keep it down to around 7.3 this is what they are now used to. I don't even know what Yellow fish is kept at(my grandma isn't the best fish keeper!).