# New to Angelfish, and looking for advice?



## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

Hi All.

I just got my first ever Angelfish and was wondering if any of you could give me some advice about keeping them

I would be grateful for any feeding and general care tips that you can share with me; I did a bit of research on the web about Angelfish, but would like to hear what people who keep them have to say about it.

The girl in LFS said that I should get three and try to get a pair from them, I only have a 37 Gal tall tank so just took two for the moment, but will get another if you Guys think it would be a good idea?.
I am not really interested in trying to breed them, so hope that two will be ok?

My tank set up ATM.
5 Amazon sword plants
1 Black sword plant
1 large Anubias barteri 
1 small Anubias barteri 
Also a few bits of bogwood.

Water temp is 75
PH = 7.6
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 10ppm

Other tank inhabitants are
9 x Corys (Small)
3 x Lemon tetras (Large)
7 x Red tailed phantoms (small).

I understand that small tetras can be food for Angles, so the phantoms may have to be moved to another tank, although I chose a size of Angelfish that should not be able to get them in its mouth.

Thanks for reading this&#8230;PanzerFodder&#8230;


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## Tark77 (Sep 6, 2010)

I am no Angel expert, but I believe the temp should be at minimum 78. At least that is my understanding. I also think your red phantoms will be fine with the angels as they are small in length, but are quite wide. The smaller "torpedo" shaped tetras/fish are more of a concern, such as neons.


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## bob123 (Dec 31, 2009)

Hi; I agree the temp. should be a minimum of 78 also if you are not interested in breeding 2 Angels will be fine, the other fish will be okay with the Angels. The ph is okay as the fish can stand a ph to about 7.8. Good luck and enjoy.


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## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks for the advice Guys, I will start to increase my temp straight away  .

I have been useing this site as a reference for care http://www.angelsplus.com/ArticleCare.htm mainly as they use wild colored stock in their breeding programs.

Mine look a bit like this, but are not wild caught fish. 









Cheer's...PanzerFodder...


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## trailblazer295 (Mar 7, 2010)

I feed my 2 angels a mix of HBH 8 veggie flakes, New Life Spectrum Finicky Fish formula, frozen mysis shrimp, and bloodworms (frozen and freeze dried left over from a betta). Gives them variety and brings out there colour nicely. They already recgonize the frozen shrimp bag when I walk into the room.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Your on the right track. The angels would survive at 75 but prefer 80, will eat almost anything, and can thrive in pH higher than 7.8. Like all fish they do better in clean water. Still one of my favorites, have fun with them.


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## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

Right then chaps, I am increasing the temp slowly and it's now at 78, will continue to bring it up to about 80ish over the next day or so.

I had a look for the mysis shrimp at BA tonight but they only had it in the dry form, I spoke to the Guy about it and he said that I would be better off feeding the frozen bloodworm and some tetracolor granules? which I am not sure about because I am not keen about feeding color enhancing stuff because I don't know what the long term effects of it will be??? bright pink corys for example! 

Thanks for all the tips Guys...PanzerFodder...


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## kev416 (Aug 22, 2010)

In addition to the frozen foods you mentioned angels love the large Tetramin flakes. I'm glad to see that wild angels are becoming so popular of late. It's like discus, the wild strains that are imported are ten times more beautiful IMO to the artificial looking ones developed through selective breeding. At the lower temperature angels grow slower but in the long run they live longer too. Use only Hikari bloodworms. The cheap stuff may introduce camallanus worms to your tank.


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## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks for the above advice Guys.

Sadly I had to take one of my new fish back to the LFS as it was on hunger strike for 8 days and never even looked like it was going to try a bit of food, so I spoke to the LFS manager and he said to bring it back and swap it for another one  .
Just took the store credit note for the time being, and will get another one once I am brave enough to risk another hunger stiker  .

I did get the other fish feeding on the Hikari bloodworms that Kev mentioned, and it will also take Tetramin pro flakes now as well, although he still has more settling in to do, I think this one is a keeper  .

Please have a look at my water chemisty, and let me know if you can see anything wrong? my corys and tetras seem to be loving it, but I am a bit new to this fishkeeping lark so please feel free to fire away if you see something that I may be missing? .


I have been checking my water every two days this week and they seem very good, apart from my PH which is 7.6 but that's what the tap water is in my area, and I don't want to bugger about adding stuff to lower it, incase it all goes pear shaped on me  .

PH = 7.6
Ammonia = 0 ppm
Nitrite = 0 ppm
Nitrate = 10 ppm

With regards to WC, I have been doing two 12.5% changes each week (one at the weekend and one mid week) I treat my tap water with Prime.
Would you recommend I keep doing it that way, or would one 25% per week be better?.


Cheer's...PanzerFodder...


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## trailblazer295 (Mar 7, 2010)

I wouldn't worry about the PH most of us in the GTA have the same water PH, the easiest way to lower it a bit is adding driftwood to the tank, its a slow process that doesn't affect the fish. Most fish can handle the higher PH its stability that is the most important.


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## laurahmm (Apr 1, 2010)

Hey PF, 

My first love was angels so I know where you are coming from.. actually I just got back into them again. I actually have a black angel for free if you want it. It's in my sister's classroom tank but it's eating all her cherries (wasnt the brightest idea on my part). She wants me to get rid of it. Its fairly large though. About palm size including fins but it leaves all the fish alone (cardinal tetras). I will post a picture later on if you are interested...I also have some extra food that I actually ordered from Angelplus as well if you want cause I have too much flake food. My angels love tetra colour bits and I also feed frozen bloodworms/brine shrimp from Hikari. I keep my tank at 78 degrees actually. I have never had to worry about the PH GH etc as long as you do weekly water changes. I dont increase it to 80 plus unless I'm trying to get them to spawn. You might want to get around 6 angels juvie size and you will hopefully get atleast one bonded pair when they grow up. its very cool watching them lay and fan their eggs and raise their babies. Just let me know if you are interested in the black angel. I will have to post up pictures later if you are. 

Laura


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## Merman (Nov 23, 2009)

Angels...great choice and probably my favorite.

Angelfish are very easy to keep and it sounds like you have all of the basics down as provided by the other members. They do prefer a higher temp = 80, it's good to vary their diet off and on : bloodworms (they really should be fed only Hikari/UV/sterilized...will explain later)/TetraMin flakes (is a good quality flake) and keeping guppies with angelfish will enable them to get live food in the form of guppy fry.

I change about 25% of my water once a week, our tap pH is fine, they don't like a lot of heavy movement and noise, if you plan on keeping any small fish with your angelfish do it while your angelfish is small, because of their long fins they are sometimes prone to being nipped and bullied by other fish, they are moody with others of their kind (they are 'cichlids'). 

Regarding the blood worms/live food/buying new fish: angelfish are prone to two nasty diseases - hexamita and callamanus (sometimes camallanus). It's nothing for you to be alarmed about just wanted to let you know. These are internal parasites that can be transmitted from buying infected fish. These conditions are not easily identified in fish shop tanks and most staff wouldn't recognize it if they saw it. 

You know you have hexamita when your angelfish goes on extended hunger strike/poo is stringy white/transparent and the fish will swim around as if in a daze, sometimes facing a corner of the tank.

You know you have callamanus when you're feeding your fish properly and yet they look as if they haven't been fed properly for a while/narrow stomach area and you may spot tiny little red worms coming out of the vent of the fish - this one can be a nightmare and you don't want it.

Due to these parasites avoid buying fish from shops that have connected water systems for their tanks - if one tank has it they all have it and be careful of frozen/live foods (stick with Hikari/UV and you should be fine here - you should only pay around $3.50 a pack max.) - by being around the site you'll hear rumblings of people that have caught these diseases from certain stores when they're around....I have not bought fish or frozen food from Big Al's in years.

Just passing along some of what I've learned from personal experience. Hope it helps.


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## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks for the very kind offer Laura, I sent you a PM just to say that have already got another fish now, so can't take yours as I don't have room .

Thanks to all of you for the advice, the bloodworm that I have is Hikari “UVX” I think this must be the same as the one you recommended?.

Now for the bomb shell, while I was at the LFS I got some BA brand mysis shrimp and have already feed half a cube to my fish (and it looks like they all had some  ) even the new one! But at least this one is willing to feed.

What brand of mysis shrimp would you guys recommend? I did see some Hikari brine shrimp I may get that instead next time I go there and bin the mysis that I already have just in case.

Chatted with the fish room manager today about these Angelfish and he said that they come from a breeder in London Ontario and that he just calls them “Greens” I can not find any reference of this color on any of the angelfish forums! Have any of you guys heard of this particular strain before, if so I would love to find out what the origins of my fish are.
Although I did get a comment on another forum as my fish having red eyes, and was told that they maybe a wild strain or a wild cross zebra type?.
Will post a photo of them showing their colors/stripes when I can find my bloody camera  .
(as you can see I am getting very interested in keeping these fish, maybe another bigger tank is on the cards for me in the future ).

I was thinking of getting a German Ram at some point, will they go OK with Angelfish or it that a big “NO”.

BTW: I saw the fish that I returned today, she still alive but looks a little thin but he did say that she is starting to feed again, so I was pleased about that  .


Thanks again for all the advice…PanzerFodder…


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## trailblazer295 (Mar 7, 2010)

I have 2 angels with a blue ram 'german strain' from Franks. They occaisonally chase him out of there side of the tank but no damage has been done and his colour is still nice and vibrant. Ram's prefer mature tank 3-4months old so I would wait before adding one. Frank usually has rams and good quality.


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## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks for that info Trailblazer.

Will hold fire on the Ram for a while in that case, I saw some super jumbo show rams at BA North York, they look like they get pretty big so am not sure they would be a good choice for my tank.
Anyway I think that I have a good ballance now, with fish at all levels and the angels are the stars of the show if you know what I mean  .

Both of the angelfish are eating like horses ATM  think that the new arrival must have made the other one feel a bit more relaxed now, so fingers crossed I think I have a couple of keepers  .
Although they did have a bit of a scuffle after a couple of hours to decide who was going to be boss (not sure who won!) but they are now swimming around together and taking food from all levels in the tank, the new one even tried to help the corys out with their sinking pellets  .


Cheer's...PanzerFodder...


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## trailblazer295 (Mar 7, 2010)

Most ram's won't get to the 'jumbo' size, if your not to far Frank' he has a variety of rams to give you an idea how big various strains get. Good to hear about the eager feeding, mine have no problem feeding off the bottom either.


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## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

Thanks Trailblazer, I will have to go over to Franks and see what he has, although I am thinking that maybe a couple of baby corys would be a better idea, as these two Angels cause a lot of mess when they hit the flake, smashing them to bits  corys will help to clear up the mess.

Found the camera (It was in the bottom of my wifes bag, I always thought that they only carried makeup in those things??? so I stand corrected now  ).

Think that from the photos bellow you will see why they were marked up as Greens in the store 

*Photo of my new fish, dose not want to turn it's stripes on for the camera though*  









*This is what they look like with their stripes showing (very bad photo by me but it's the best I could get tonight*  )









*Last photo is of my tank, the Swordplants need to grow a bit more to make it look a bit more like an Amazon setup, I will sort it out and move some stuff around once that has happened.*









*Another photo showing some stripes (this is the fish that I returned coz she was on hunger strike)
*









BTW: Anybody that knows what the type/strain of my angels is, could you please let me know?.

Cheer's...PanzerFodder...


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## trailblazer295 (Mar 7, 2010)

I have plecos, and amano shrimp on my bottom so I have the clean up crew covered. 

Your second pic looks like a silver angel, I have one myself.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

Merman said:


> You know you have hexamita when your angelfish goes on extended hunger strike/poo is stringy white/transparent and the fish will swim around as if in a daze, sometimes facing a corner of the tank.
> 
> What are you basing this on? My experience with this symptom is that it doesn't respond to any treatment.


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## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

*CHERRY SHRIMP FAIL*

OK, so I went to the LFS on Saturday and decided to get a couple of hatchetfish to fill up the top layer of the tank a bit  while the guy was catching the hatchets, he also managed to net a cherry shrimp at the same time and said "OK" you can have that one for free .
I took them home and told my wife about my good fortune in getting a free shrimp  .

I let the bag float for 30 mins or so and then let them go, my wife said that the shrimp looked a bit pale and not at all like the ones she had seen before! .

I said hang on, I'll turn the lights on as it should look a bit brighter then  .

It did make the shrimp look a bit brighter and we must have watched it for all of 30 seconds before one of the Angels dived on it and bit it in half   .

Cheer's...PanzerFodder...


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