55 Gallon Tank Juvenile Angelfish Tank Setup and General Process

[Gameynerd23]

I currently only have one angelfish, but I would like more. I have a 55 in the main family room of my house and would like to make it an Angelfish tank. I'd like to have two pairs, or four fish that get along as well as cichlids can. My main question is about the process of finding those four/pairs. I've read that what can be done is getting maybe 6 to 8 juveniles and watching how the interact. Once they either pair off or establish a pecking order, then you separate or rehome the ones that aren't paired/getting bullied. I also have a 75 gallon tank that I would be able to put some of the angels in as well. I.I'm mostly wondering if this would be a good idea. I would also add about 12 cherry barbs. Just to clarify, the 6-8 angels would a be juveniles and be separated into more appropriate groups for the tank size later on.

 

[SparkyJones]

if you intend for pairs, intend to give each pair their own tank of 20-30 gallons (30 gallons if you are doing it long term would be better). What you can do, in the 55g, a group of 6 or 8 juveniles and grow them out to maturity and there's a good chance of at least one female being in that group of 6 or 8, maybe two.
At maturity thought the female will want to pair, and she will want to take and defend territory. the males will fight to show who's the strongest and whos the best choice out of the males to the female. at that point the pair should be removed in order to keep the peace in the bigger tank, the pair goes into a tank by themselves.
you can have a group of unpaired mature males only, and you can have a group of juveniles, if a female is in the mix, at maturity, it will become territorial and aggressive. you can have mature males without females, and other fish that are too big for them to eat with relative peace also, but not with a female in there.

if you want angelfish I would not do more than one male and one female in a tank under 6 ft in length, and I'm not sure a 6ft tank would work for two pairs long term, they will still cross paths. but like I said, you can have a group of males with no female and it stays mostly peaceful, maybe some squabbles over the pecking order and some pushing, but nothing crazy and territorial.

in the wild the juveniles and unpaired males will cruise around in groups, the mature males hoping for females to mature and maybe get a shot at pairing. and when females mature, they go off from these groups, stake out a spawning territory and defend it, the females do not work in a group, and make the tank tense and there's nowhere for fish to really go to get out of the females territory, and 4 ft really isn't enough space for two females to get their own spawning territory, so they will fight and try to remove the other, which won't end well for one of them.

I'm not saying you can't do it, what I am saying is, if you have the intentions on getting breeding pairs, that breeding angelfish are not "community tank friendly", the eggs will get eaten by the pair to stop other fish from getting them first, the pair will kill other fish if they can to make the territory safe for their eggs, and other fish will eat the eggs if they can and this will cause stress on everyone which in the long run will lead to failure.

Yes, you can take 6 or 8 juveniles and grow them out and pair them off, but when they pair off, the pairs need their own tanks by themselves, and the left over males can stay in the community tank with other fish types even, and any additional females need their own tank also, or to be rehomed. You can tank females once identified and attempt to pair them with males from the community tank in order to get different types of offspring from the pairings also, this works as long as the female accepts the male as a breeding partner, if not the male needs to be removed and try another male. you might need to break a pair if the male is infertile also and try a different male to figure out if it's the male or the female with the problem.

and if you don't intend to get breeding pairs, or breed angelfish, you'd be much better off just getting a group of 6 mature males and save yourself all of that fiasco of what happens when the unidentified juveniles mature.

 

[Gameynerd23]

if you intend for pairs, intend to give each pair their own tank of 20-30 gallons (30 gallons if you are doing it long term would be better). What you can do, in the 55g, a group of 6 or 8 juveniles and grow them out to maturity and there's a good chance of at least one female being in that group of 6 or 8, maybe two.
At maturity thought the female will want to pair, and she will want to take and defend territory. the males will fight to show who's the strongest and whos the best choice out of the males to the female. at that point the pair should be removed in order to keep the peace in the bigger tank, the pair goes into a tank by themselves.
you can have a group of unpaired mature males only, and you can have a group of juveniles, if a female is in the mix, at maturity, it will become territorial and aggressive. you can have mature males without females, and other fish that are too big for them to eat with relative peace also, but not with a female in there.

if you want angelfish I would not do more than one male and one female in a tank under 6 ft in length, and I'm not sure a 6ft tank would work for two pairs long term, they will still cross paths. but like I said, you can have a group of males with no female and it stays mostly peaceful, maybe some squabbles over the pecking order and some pushing, but nothing crazy and territorial.

in the wild the juveniles and unpaired males will cruise around in groups, the mature males hoping for females to mature and maybe get a shot at pairing. and when females mature, they go off from these groups, stake out a spawning territory and defend it, the females do not work in a group, and make the tank tense and there's nowhere for fish to really go to get out of the females territory, and 4 ft really isn't enough space for two females to get their own spawning territory, so they will fight and try to remove the other, which won't end well for one of them.

I'm not saying you can't do it, what I am saying is, if you have the intentions on getting breeding pairs, that breeding angelfish are not "community tank friendly", the eggs will get eaten by the pair to stop other fish from getting them first, the pair will kill other fish if they can to make the territory safe for their eggs, and other fish will eat the eggs if they can and this will cause stress on everyone which in the long run will lead to failure.

Yes, you can take 6 or 8 juveniles and grow them out and pair them off, but when they pair off, the pairs need their own tanks by themselves, and the left over males can stay in the community tank with other fish types even, and any additional females need their own tank also, or to be rehomed. You can tank females once identified and attempt to pair them with males from the community tank in order to get different types of offspring from the pairings also, this works as long as the female accepts the male as a breeding partner, if not the male needs to be removed and try another male. you might need to break a pair if the male is infertile also and try a different male to figure out if it's the male or the female with the problem.

and if you don't intend to get breeding pairs, or breed angelfish, you'd be much better off just getting a group of 6 mature males and save yourself all of that fiasco of what happens when the unidentified juveniles mature.

I'm just asking in case you know, bur do you happen to know where I could get male angels?

 

[SparkyJones]

you'd buy them as grown mature males instead of juveniles, or buy juveniles and rehome the females when they mature. Pretty hard to identify sex100% as juveniles, But males tend towards keeping their dorsal fin erect where a female tends towards laying it back, and a female will mostly keep her ventral fins laid back towards her tail, while a male usually keeps them straight down.
it's not 100% though and can be wrong when they mature and surprise you to be the opposite sex.

 

[Gameynerd23]

you'd buy them as grown mature males instead of juveniles, or buy juveniles and rehome the females when they mature. Pretty hard to identify sex100% as juveniles, But males tend towards keeping their dorsal fin erect where a female tends towards laying it back, and a female will mostly keep her ventral fins laid back towards her tail, while a male usually keeps them straight down.
it's not 100% though and can be wrong when they mature and surprise you to be the opposite sex.

If/when I'm able to find all males... How many could live in a 55 gallon?

 

[SparkyJones]

it's all over the place, it depends on your level of filtration and how much work you intend to do.

Some might say no more than 1 per 55 gallon, or a pair in a 55g and an easy time on water changing and keeping water quality up.
Some might say 4-5-6 and a bit more intense water changing routine to keep it nice for them.
I'd say 6 males would be comfortable with a weekly 50% water change in a 55g and if you have more filtration than you need and don't mind more water changes more often, doing the work, you could probably swing 10 males if you wanted to do it, but it would require more water changing and work to keep the water quality up, which could be somewhat offset through heavy filtration and heavy live plants if you wanted to go that route.

in a 55 gallon, I wouldn't go more than 6 unless you want the responsibility of doing more water changes, like 2 or 3 a week to keep up on it and keep the nitrates down. beyond 6 it gets hard to stay on top of the nitrate build up, and well it takes a lot of food also. I'm growing out 30 in a 72g.
I'm water changing every other day 50% to keep nitrates down, and I use a pound of flake a month to feed them, so like $25 a month to feed them, then electricity and the water bill, kind of costly to keep up with overstocking and keeping the fish healthy. I'll probably need a daily 50% water changes when they all are at full size adults if I can't identify the females before then and narrow down to just the ones I'm keeping.

I will narrow it down to 8-12 males when I'm done with the grow out and rehome the rest.

 

[Gameynerd23]

it's all over the place, it depends on your level of filtration and how much work you intend to do.

Some might say no more than 1 per 55 gallon, or a pair in a 55g and an easy time on water changing and keeping water quality up.
Some might say 4-5-6 and a bit more intense water changing routine to keep it nice for them.
I'd say 6 males would be comfortable with a weekly 50% water change in a 55g and if you have more filtration than you need and don't mind more water changes more often, doing the work, you could probably swing 10 males if you wanted to do it, but it would require more water changing and work to keep the water quality up, which could be somewhat offset through heavy filtration and heavy live plants if you wanted to go that route.

in a 55 gallon, I wouldn't go more than 6 unless you want the responsibility of doing more water changes, like 2 or 3 a week to keep up on it and keep the nitrates down. beyond 6 it gets hard to stay on top of the nitrate build up, and well it takes a lot of food also. I'm growing out 30 in a 72g.
I'm water changing every other day 50% to keep nitrates down, and I use a pound of flake a month to feed them, so like $25 a month to feed them, then electricity and the water bill, kind of costly to keep up with overstocking and keeping the fish healthy. I'll probably need a daily 50% water changes when they all are at full size adults if I can't identify the females before then and narrow down to just the ones I'm keeping.

I will narrow it down to 8-12 males when I'm done with the grow out and rehome the rest.

Thanks for sharing all of that! I think maybe 4 males is what I'll do since the only other fish will be cherry barbs and I do roughly 50% weekly water changes.

 

[SparkyJones]

Thanks for sharing all of that! I think maybe 4 males is what I'll do since the only other fish will be cherry barbs and I do roughly 50% weekly water changes.

Glad I could help, since you aren't interested too much with breeding now, males only is the way to go with it, it will save you a ton of frustration, it's such a disaster when the females mature and what it does for the peace of a tank. Nothing against females, just people get blindsided by it. Best to stick to males at first, and maybe head down the breeding road later on if you feel up to the challenge and get a tank and a female and try to pair one of your males with her.