Angels and their tankmates

Hi all,

I am busy with setting up my 5ft tank, and was keen on keeping Neons, but buying enough neon tetra to make them a big enough school is going to cost me an arm and a leg, and they're also quite fragile and I don't want to spend a lot on a school of neons just to have them die off one by one.

I am a big fan of Angels and know they won't work so well with the neons, so I was wondering how many Angels one should generally keep together, and if they are compatible with Gouramis (most likely dwarf gouramis like in my avatar picture) or Pearl and Golden Gouramis, if dwarfs are too small to keep with angels.

Also, what other fish would work well with these tankmates? I will be getting a school of Corydoras as well to keep everything nice and clean, and I really like the little guys.. if they'll be okay with the species mentioned.

Thanks and looking forward to your replies!!

Regards,

M

 

Hi @WaRn00b I will give my 2 cents worth acording to my own experience....Neons are fine to keep with younger angels, and you shouldnt have any real problems, the angels will only start getting agresive when they start to pair of and become teretorial. Buy the neons as big as you can, so that they can grow up with with the angels, and the angels can get use to them being in the tank. By the time the angels are fully grown so should your neons, and the angels should not make a meal of the pretty little school of neons. Also there is nothing better then a big school of neons in such a large tank, about 40 - 50 of them should do the trick, so buying them in lets say over 2 months time, shouldnt make such a huge dent in the pocket. You can also look @ glowlights as an alternative. Regarding the amount of angels to keep, is up to you always buy some extra ones and keep the more dominant ones and get rid of the slow growers. I will start of with about 10 angels or so, and work it down untill you have the best of the batch @ about 6 in the 5 foot, it also depends what other fish you will be keeping and how many of them, and regarding the gouramis, they should be fine to keep with the angels.

Another option is to buy 10 neons, set up a 2 foot tank and breed your own neons untill you have the biggest school ever...

Hope this helps a bit...

 

Hello

Just to add to that
The issue is that angels dont stay small.

I am down 24 odd cardinals due to 1 angel who has grown from a 5 rand coin in size early last year to slighlty smaller than a tea saucer now. His mates are close behind him.
They also eat my glass bloodfins and neons. Only my bloodfins which are the size of swordtails are too big to consume.
I have reverted to molly's (balloon, sailfin and lyretail) and swordtails as tank mates. My swordtails are also preganant, so that should keep the angels happy with nibbles.
For some reason though, they dont touch my silver tips.

 

Fact: Big Angels eat small fish....some more than others.

Your tank is nice and big,so the Gouramis would work,the Cory's too.. Congo tetras in a school of 6 - 10 would be nice too... And Loaches...lotsa loaches.. shoal of 5+ Zebra Loaches will keep you amused for hours....(and snail free)

 

I have got a 1.2 with 7 juvenile angels( bodies about 40mm excluding fins) with 6 dwarf gourami, 2 silver tip, 2 serpae, 4 bronze cory and 3 pepper cory. Had them all for a while now and no problems

 

Thanks for the comments guys!!

Really helps a lot.

I've never looked at Congo tetras, but after googling some pics, they are BEAUTIFUL!!

So how does this sound for now?:

Around 5 Angels.
5 Dwarf Gouramis (If I can find some)
12 Congo Tetra (If I can find some)
6 Clown Loaches ( @azurekoi would they be okay or must I rather get zebra loaches? I kind of prefer the clown's though. )

*Edit - Did some reading, see the Clown Loaches grow to 16inches!! Bit big that!! The zebra loaches top out at 4inches.. which will fit in much nicer.

Also is it wise toe keep loaches and corys? Or should I decide which one of the 2 I like and get one species rather?

What other nice species would I be able to add? Preferably a schooling species that would swim around gracefully and look brilliant, something I can keep in a school the same size as the congo tetra.

Thanks guys!

 

Rummy knose tetras are beautifull is a school! Maybe some tiger barbs? They also make a good looking school?

 

Rummy noses can work yeah.. Tiger barbs are a bit aggressive, and would most likely scare the shy Gouramis.. though I do like tiger barbs as well, pity they're a bit agro.

Was thinking of a school of Golden Pristella Tetra (Xray Tetra) as well.. they're quite awesome as well.

Hmmm.. soooo many options.. hahaha..

Quite excited about this again!! Hehe.

 

Great...im sure you will make up your mind. Send the pics when its all done.

 

Rummy Noses are great, I had about 16 at a time and 8 - 10 glass bloodfins. They also grow nice and big (about 4 - 5cm)

Barbs. I always say barb sounds better than barbarian. Which seems more than often the way they seem to act against their tank mates.

 

I have 2 Zebra loaches mixed with a platoon of other bottom feeders and they love the 5ft tank. Gave them one of those ornamental vases that got holes in and they keep each other busy for hours playing tag or something... Or they simply do it to annoy the hi fin pleco that hides in there. Oh and I got 4 juvenile angels in there as well with loads of other fish

 

Tiger Barbs? With Angels? No! No! No! You WILL be short an Angel every week if you put them together. Please do not ever even consider putting tiger Barbs in with some Angels. They will nip the fins of the Angels and stress them into a state of death in little to no time!

Regards

Marco

 

Tiger barbs are called barbs because of one reason... they are barbaric. Not to be mixed with angels. Better suite for species tank.

Angels growing up with neons MAY be ok... BUT not a definite. They might start chow-down when they can. And a full grown neon will fit in the mouth of a full grown angel.

 

Thanks guys!!

Actually looking at my tank as we speak.. neons and glow lights are shoaling together. Looks so nice..

Need to think long and hard if I want to keep neons/glowlights or if I want angels. Eish.. decisions.. decisions..

Maybe a few more gouramis instead of Angels.. but damn.. Angels are nice as well.. lol

So confusing these choices.. hehe

 

you cant go wrong with gouramis and tetras. I have 4 gouramis and 8 tetras and it really seems to work well.
you can even add some bottom dwellers to create a nice tiered effect

 

Just a warning on the Gouramis.

3 spot / corbis / Blue lace are the unfriendly type.

Golden, pearls, dwarf, sunset - they are the winners.

Cant comment on kissing Gouramis.

Giant is a no no.

 

Thanks once again for the comments.

I'll be sure to check that I don't get 3 spot, corbis or blue lace gouramis..

I quite like the golden and pearl gouramis.

Anyhow, thanks once again for the replies!!

 

The smaller angels are 90% of the time, the females...
Remember also, that you need about 50L. of water per large angel...

 

In total I have around +/- 540L so it should be fine.

Will think about what fish I want to keep.

 

i dont know guys.. i have 16 tiger barbs and 1 angel in my planted 100L.. they get along fine, i think that if you have tiger barbs in a large enough school they are more interested in each other than anything else.. and of course with a heavily planted tank, there's lots of cover for any fish

in fact my tiger barbs dont bother any of the other fish in my tank, which include giant danios, and silver tip tetras and one large flying fox..