csulli13

I recently went to petco to get a few ghost shrimp, and while they didn't have any ghost shrimp in stock, a beatiful full grown angelfish caught my eye. My 29 gallon tank currently has 7 zebra danios, 2 marbled mollies, and 2 dalmation mollies, plus a small fish of unknown type (either a mollie or danio, too small to tell, he's just big enough that the other fish don't chase him around anymore). With a full grown angelfish I was a bit afraid for my fry so I bought a breeder net to put him in until he got a little bigger.

After arriving home I set up the beeder net and put the fry in it, then introduced the angelfish to the tank. I was worried that being as big as he was he might bully the other fish, but the opposite was true. The second he was in the tank one of my marbled mollies was after him like a flash, chasing him around the tank and constantly attacking the Angelfish. (the Angelfish is about 5-6" long, the Mollie about 2" tops)

The Angelfish finally found solice in an aquarium decoration (cave like coluseam) but every time he ventured out the mollie would be after him again. The mollie even chased him out of his hiding place a few times, but now seems to be leaving him alone.

I'm not really worried about the fry anymore, since despite his imposing appearance my new Angelfish appears to be a coward, but I don't want him to starve to death in self imposed exile either. I think my options at this point are:

1) Put the Mollie in the breeding net for a few days to let the Angelfish acclimate in peace.

2) Put the Angelfish in the breeding net (which would be quite cramped for him). This would have the added benifit of being able to feed him seperately as all my fish are very aggressive eaters.

3) Try to re-home the marbled mollie in my 5 gallon betta tank.

4) Leave everything alone and see if the situation works itself out.

Any suggustions/advice?

Attached Images

	Angelfish.jpg (41.2 KB, 7 views)
	Mollie.jpg (80.5 KB, 5 views)

agabr123

i think that number 1 would be your best option. or what you can do is take out the aggressive mollie, rearrange everything, THEN put your mollie in the breeder net. let the angel get established a bit, and then put the mollie. if that doesn't work, i'd probably try to re-home him

Nick G

Good advice from Alex! I'd do exactly that, take out the aggressor, rearrange the decor and put him back after a few hours in the net.

Dozey

To add to the current advice it’s a good idea when introducing new fish to rearrange your tank just prior to introducing the new fish. The idea of rearranging your tank is that all the fish will take a step back to adjust to their new surrounding and hopefully the new inhabitants at the same time.

Good Luck!

Blub

I agree with everyone about re-aranging, but seriously BE CAREFUL when isolating fish with a breeder net - they can often get VERY stressed and develop illness which may further complicate the situation.

csulli13

Thanks everyone for the advice. I did a waterchange today and rearranged the tank (decided to forego isoliting the mollie for now). Angelfish is still hiding, but I'll keep an eye on the tank and see how it goes.