# angels in 55 - how many & tankmates



## emptyhead (Apr 16, 2007)

I recently switched over a 55 from a malawi set up to a planted community. This weeked I decided to go with angels for the center piece of the tank. I bought 5 small angels. There a also about 15 mixed tetras and mollies and a pleco. So, 2 questions:

1. How many angels should I have? I have read that they will pair up and I'll need to remove all but the pair - true? I was thinking that 5 adult angels would fill the tank up - could I add a couple more?

2. Any recommendations on other fish to keep with the angels? (I was thinking of adding some ghost catfish or rummy nose tetras.)

Thanks!


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## naegling23 (Jan 4, 2008)

The cookie cutter states 4 angels.

My 55 has two (1 pair) and I think thats enough.

Heavily plant it with val and see what happens, they might be fine, they might not.

So no, do not add more angels.

Other fish...you could add cory catfish, any larger bodied tetra or hatchets, and my favorite, dwarf cichlids. Rams and apisto's but also cuviceps work very well with angels.

Sure you could add barbs and all that, but I personally prefer to stick with the general locale of each fish, so I would only keep angels with other south american species.

Some notes though before you go adding. Check the cookie cutter tanks, you dont want to overpopulate. In my opinion, an understocked tank looks better than an overstocked one anyway. Mixed tetra's....smaller tetras = angelfish food. You might loose a few of them. Some tetras are also fin nippers, you might need to remove them to give your angels some peace. Pleco...you mean regular pleco or a type of pleco? Bristlenose and some other pleco's stay small, the common pleco gets huge. That fish will severely limit what you can put into the tank, and a large reason will be bioload.


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## emptyhead (Apr 16, 2007)

naegling23 said:


> The cookie cutter states 4 angels.
> 
> My 55 has two (1 pair) and I think thats enough.
> 
> ...


Okay - I will stay with the 5 and see if I need to thin them out later.

The pleco is a gibbeceps - I may remove him at some point.

I don't want understocked, or an over packed tank. I don't think overstocking has to look bad, if the right fish in the right numbers are there - it will look good. I know at this point that I want the angels - the rest is undecided. I will add and remove as fish as I go along. Part of it is waiting for the plants to grow and begin filling the tank.

Thanks for the help.


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## Britishbookbug (Dec 1, 2007)

My experience has been the same as naegling23. I had 4 angels in a 46 gal tank. They couldn't get along. I have ended up with one pair (male/female). I moved them to their own 29 gal tank. They never fight. In fact, they have spawned twice since then. I have a yoyo loach, ottos, flying foxes, and neon tetras to keep them company. They don't bother the tetras, although I have heard that some people have problems with this mix. I gave the other two to a new home.


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## Malawi Mac (Aug 20, 2004)

I've kept four Bosemani rainbows in my angelfish tank for the past 4 years or so. I've had no conflicts between the two. The rainbows offer both color and body shape contrast with the angels.

I'd also long wanted to add a school of tetras, but I ruled out most available species as either too small (and thus likely to end up as angel food) or too nippy. Then a LFS recently obtained a shipment of Congo tetras. They went from my quarantine tank to my angel tank about a month ago. No problems so far.


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## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

I have angels and tetras in two planted tanks with no problems. The tetras I have are rummynose, pristella, von rios and black phantoms. The angels don't bother any of them.


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