Sabi

Hi

Well about 2 weeks ago i became sure that my Black Marble angel was a female and the zebra a male, as the male was smaller in size but had a more pronounced bump on the forehead while the female was bigger in body size (she's 1 yaer) also had a bump as such but not so obvious.
Once making that out i thought i'd try again to let them pair. Yesterday, I took the female out of her tank and the male out of his. Introduced the female into his tank and then reintroduced the male back into his own tank.
At fisrt they didn't see each other but when they did both flared out their fins and made 'go's' at each other. The male then started the lip locking. They done this for about 2 houres+. Now the female wants to lip lock but the male doesn't! He's just backing away from her. Can't they just come right, I ask you!!!! I redecorated the tank today and done a water change. It isn't like the female wants to kill him but when ever he starts to swim she comes up with flaring fins otherwise she just watches him.
I'm going to leave them like this as long as no harm seems to be coming but any ideas of what else i can do?

Allie

I am in the same boat as you are.
My silver female was being super aggressive, so I put her alone for a bit. She had the male's fins all torn up and her lips are swollen from attacking. I do have another female who he may pair up with too..but I am wondering if it'll be the same aggression from my zebra lace female eventually.

Sabi

Where did they get the name "angel" fish from? They dont even look like angels. (but i like them anyway)

Yip i was thinking of taking the female out if she carried on

Butterfly

Sabi as long as no damage is being done I would leave them. This lip locking and aggression business is basically a message "are you man/woman to be the father/mother to my fry." If one keeps backing away they may not be the correct sex or may be weak in some way and not a good parent. In the wild one would just swim away and another fish selected for the "test". Since they are in a closed system damage may occur or they may go ahead(if the correct sex) and spawn since no other mate is available.
Good luck!
Carol

Allie

I have renamed them demon fish instead.

Butterfly

Our black angels seemed to be more aggressive(terribly aggressive)than our others. The female black Lace female had red eyes and hubby nick named her devil woman ( I believe that was a Roy Orbison song )
The Chocolate angels were next and didn't last long.
Our Koi angels were the least aggressive and just joys to behold even when they were testing each other. I kept four males(no females) in the 75 G for over a year and never had the first problem.
All this to say I think color has something to do with tendicies (sp) for aggression What do you think?
Carol

Allie

My marbled females were devils and my marble comb tail pair were nuts. Those all got trade or sold first...then my chocolates. My silver female has always been the dominant female. Females seem to be much more cranky than males, go figure eh? She has had 3 boyfriends now, 2 died. She always fights back when someone would try to challenge her. My male black angel is pretty calm until Angel attacks.

And I named her ANGEL?

Sabi

You are not far off, my sister calls them devilfish..:P
I think you are right. It crossed my mind as the female is a black marble and much more aggressive than the male. The male's a silver zebra and and more fragile looking and way less aggressive.

Anyway i'm back to square one.

I went into the room earlier and the female had the male was in a corner, looking like he had no fight left and wasn't intersted in what happened to him. I took him out and put him into the main tank. Now the female looks angry, not joking, she's swimming around looking for him! I dont think it's going to work out between these 2. I'm going to give it one more try by introducing the female into the males tank after a few days, but still going to keep a look out for a male with a black gene in him.

..sigh...

Sabi

My female, which in fact i thought to be a male until now, was named fire-head but I'm renaming her flame. I think it'll suit her perfectly!

Allie

Maybe we need to trade males, lol.

capekate

I never really thought that the 'lip locking' was a sign of affection or checking out a potential mate. Most of my fish that lip locked were in battle with each other. An example of it is the angel fish and Discus lip locking. Now I know.. they are not checking each other for potential mate!
~ kate

Butterfly

nope not affection but a test of strength. Between two fish of the same type it is a pre-spawning sign.
carol

Sabi

....And my female was the stronger of the 2. Pulling him all about.

If one finds the other not strong/good enough i guess he/she's had it!

capekate

Thanks for clearing that up Carol. Since my two angels were doing that, and the aggression that I thought was aggression.. I wonder if I should have just kept them together in case they wanted to pair up? If they did.. its sad that they are separated now with no other angels with them? Reason I separated them was because I thought it was aggression.. what do you think? Should I put them back together or just leave it alone?
thanks, kate

Sabi

Hi Kate, not sure if your q was for Carol only....
My would be to try and intoduce the stronger of the 2 into the weaker ones tank, in that way the weaker would have more advantage because of territory. Mine were plain fighting and i had to have them separated for about a month+. In that time each should have established their territory and by introducing the female into the males tank i hoped he would have had advantage. He was the one that started the lip locking but couldn't finish it off i'm afraid...

It may or may not work, just what i tried.

Allie

A factor I have noticed with their aggression is if the temp get near 80+ they seem crankier...same with our piranha. Maybe they don't like it too warm. I like to keep it at 78 they seem happy at that temp.

capekate

Hi Sabi,
Have you since re-introduced your angels again? Just wondering if it worked by keeping them separated for awhile. Mine have been separated for over a month now.

capekate

Hi Allie, I can see your point. Since raising the temp in the tank will at times trigger mating/spawning. I guess if the temp is kept at a lower temp, you can get around this. My temp in the tank is about 80-82* in the 29g with the one angel and Discus. The other angel is in the 55 with the temp set at 77*.
thanks for letting me know about this!
~ kate