liplocking and aggressive angelfish!!

[msarko19]

Hey guys,

So I have two angelfish as my center piece of my planted 29g. I posted recently asking about what I believed to be mating behavior and since I got my second angel a few months back, they have been best friends! Up till today they were inseparable, guarded their territory together and never showed any aggression towards each other. Weeeeelll... today they were lip locking for a few minutes and as soon as that finished, my veil angel has been real aggressive to the other silver. Chasing him/her (not sure on sexes) around the tank and forcing the subordinate fish into corners or into thick plant bunches. this has been going on for about 30 minutes now and I'm starting to see some scale damage on the side of the silver angel. Is this just them preparing to spawn or did something snap in the veil angel? I would bet money on them being a pair but I'm a little worried because of the scale damage. The angels are in a 29 gallon moderate-heavily planted, 78F, fresh water change today and nothing new with water parameters. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!





they are both silver angels but one is a veil. My best guess is the silver is male and veil is female but that's pretty much a coin toss. silver has more "male" body characteristics and same for veil (female characteristics) but haven't spawned yet.

 

[Tolak]

First, rig or buy a divider if you don't have a spare tank, if it gets way out of hand they need to be separated. Lip locking is often pairing behavior, serious chasing where one gets pinned in a corner & things don't let up is aggression. Some pairs will play rougher than others, I've had pairs that had to be kept divided unless it was tubes down spawning time.

 

[msarko19]

thanks for the quick reply! that's what I was thinking about the chasing and cornering thing. even right now the subordinate angel is hanging out in a bunch of plants and the other aggressive fish is sitting just behind it hanging out. not pecking or chasing just sitting closely, but as soon as the sub. angel makes a move the chase is on with some hard jabs! does this lean one way or the other?

First, rig or buy a divider if you don't have a spare tank, if it gets way out of hand they need to be separated. Lip locking is often pairing behavior, serious chasing where one gets pinned in a corner & things don't let up is aggression. Some pairs will play rougher than others, I've had pairs that had to be kept divided unless it was tubes down spawning time.

 

[Tolak]

Sounds like aggression more than pairing. Try the divider deal, you may have a pair that are only compatible when spawning, tubes down will tell.