Angelfish picking on new arrivals

I have a well established amazon 55 gallon tank and I have a marble angel in it that is about the size of a 50 cent piece, a female apisto cacatuoides and 2 catfish. I put in 6 black angels today I got on ebay, they're about dime size maybe a tad bigger. Anyway, the older fish has started nipping at them, not too bad though. It seems that he just wants to let them know whose boss! I've kept fish for years, but never any angelfish and my question is did I make a mistake adding the new smaller angels?

 

Big boy is establishing his/her territory give it some time and they will get used to each other, especially when the little ones catch up in size

 

Thank-you!

 

Thank-you!

How are the angels doing? I’m running into the same issue “sorta”.

 

Just wanted to say I am having the same problem.

I am really a Goldfish guy but I had many tropical tanks as a kid about 20+ years ago, and when I upgraded to a bigger tank for my Goldfish at Christmastime, I decided to have some fun with a Tropical community tank with my 60-gallon. I have some Tiger Barbs (who , despite what everyone says, are really the coolest fish in the tank- they chase EACH OTHER around the tank all the time, but never ONCE seem to bother a single fish... And the other half of their time, they spend playing in the airstone bubble walls...) , some Neon Tetras, some Glowlight Tetras ( I call my Glow Plugs, I love Glowlight Tetras lol) , a young red Bristlenose pleco, a grown Rubberlip pleco that *does. not. come. out. until. midnite.* ... and some Angelfish- I have a pair of big, BEAUTIFUL angelfish that I got from PetSmart, striking fish in my opinion. I also have a younger Angelfish that I got from a local pet store, and recently I added a juvenile Angelfish that also found at PetSmart (that is beautiful, it looks *identical* to one of my 2 Big Boys, but is probably only a few months old vs. a year or so.)

So I went to PetSmart a few weeks back, and I had been planning on going. They had 3 baby, "Starfire Red Glofish Tiger Barbs" that I wanted to 'rescue' from them (I consider purchasing fish from petstores to be 'rescuing' them because I KNOW I will give them as best a life as I possibly can, whereas other people , you never know...) - and I had actually made a little list... I was going to buy the aforementioned 3 baby Red Tiger Barbs, a few extra Glowlight Tetras, the 1 aforementioned baby Angelfish, and 3 "Black Neon Tetras" - in the cases of both Red Tiger Barbs and the Black Neon Tetras, they had 3 each in the tanks, so I bought all 3, because I figured I'd keep them together (rather than separating them etc.)

At first, this punk-a$$ teenager/college-age kid basically refused to sell them to me, and tried to slow-talk-explain to me the fact I could not keep these fish ... "Angelfish are something called... SICK...LIDS... They're NOT Tet...Ras... and Tiiiiggerr Baaaaarbs cannnn't go with ANY of them... " -- First, I explained, "Son, I am about 40 years old, and have been keeping fish for longer than you've been alive. Just so we're clear. But second, what makes you think I am keeping them together, not that I can't, but you just immediately told me that you couldn't sell me the list of fish I wanted to buy? How do you know I don't have an entire house full of tanks? (I have 3 operating at the present, but not his business...) ?" He then explains that's just "the Rules..." - and basically walks away from me, refuses to help me. Shortly after, a young lady came to help me- she sold me the fish, but continually quizzed me as if I need to justify each purchase, "Who is going where? What's the size of THAT tank... how long has it been established? What fish are in it?? And what's going in with THAT fish??" -- I am sorry, I do not feel the need to justify my purchases to PetSmart. Certainly not to college kids that are literally half my age.



Well sure as sugar, after introducing the fish to my tank, the Big Angelfish spent an hour mercilessly bullying my Black Neon Tetras in particular. It was getting to the point that I was worried I was going to need to go out and buy another tank that night, and set up some sort of other option. I had to stick my hand in a few times and chase off the big Angelfish and I was genuinely worried, the Black Neon Tetras might not make it, from shock (having just entered a new Aquarium and ecosystem, they're dealing with that, and now they're getting big-time-bullied...)

I decided to try an other option- I put a Sera "Nip-o-Tasty" tab on the glass (amazing food product if you don't know) despite the fact it was NOT feeding time, and sprinkled some HikarI Vibra_Bites and even a few freeze-dried Shrimps into the water, and the Angelfish immediately lost all interest in the Tetras and ate the food.

Now , it's been 3? weeks, and they're all friends. The big Angelfish can still be bullies during feeding time, but at least they're not actively bothering any of the fish. I had kept Angelfish for years as a teenager, and they were always docile and friendly... I was not expecting any aggression. Frankly I was worried about the Tiger Barbs, and they're just party animals, don't bother anybody lol.

Hope yours are doing okay!