angel tank

[JUDO_BADGER]

My wife has finally decided what she wants to keep in her salon. She is going to use a sixty five gallon flat back hex (basically a rectangular tank with the front two coners cut on 45 degree angles if that makes sense) She has her I on a very nice adult pair of angels. Before I let her go buy them is there any way to tell how old they are. I would hate to have her pay for them and realize too late that they are only going to live a little while longer. I normally don't worry when I buy adult fish, but I read that angels only live 2-3 years and these fish are somewhat expensive since they are a show quality pair. She has her heart set on them though so any advice would be helpful.

[AngelMom]

I'm not sure where you heard 2-3 years......angels, if well kept should live to between 8 and 10 years if I remember correctly. And to answer your question, no, once they are adults (about 6" without fins) there is really no way to tell how old they are.

[JUDO_BADGER]

well thats good to hear. I am glad that they have a decent life span. I will have to ask if they know how old the pair is, but anything but ancient and they should be well worth the money.

[GirlieGirl8519]

She could always by 3 smaller angels and hope 2 pair off. Then she would know they are young.

[JUDO_BADGER]

Ok keeping in mind she would like to build this tank around angels what should I stock it with. One pair of angels or more? What tankmates should go with them if any and how many. The tank is a sixtyfive gallon flat back hex

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e168/judobadger/bb.jpg

[oscarbartoni]

Even if you purchase the angel fish there is no guarantee that they will spawn for you given that they will be in new conditions. I would make sure to have plenty of large live aquariun (healthy ones that is) in the tank and maybe some small corydoras catfish and maybe some dwarf cichlids to keep them company.

[GirlieGirl8519]

What about a school of tetras? The angels would stand out more with just one big school. I personally like rummynose tetras. Lemon tetras, black neons, rainbowfish, diamond tetras, pristella tetras, flame tetras, and harlequin rasboras are all good choices for a school that can be kept with angels.

I'd also go with some cories for the bottom. A pair of german or bolivian rams would be ok, but would definitely take away focus from the angels, so I wouldn't add them.

[JUDO_BADGER]

Ok here is the next question then. Our water comes out of the tap with 8.0 ph and 13 ppm hardness and the same for kh. Do I need to get an RO unit to cut the water to get the hardness below ten or will the angels do all right in this water. I have had mixed answers on this from my lfs and want to be careful.

[crazyred]

My angels are doing okay in my water. My pH is 7.2 and my hardness is 300 ppm or 16.7 degrees. I did lose one angle this weekend, but I think there was something wrong with it. I don't think it had anything to do with the water....my other three angels and my rams are fine.

[JUDO_BADGER]

I tried rams once, but they did not do well. We lost three of the four I bought even though I did a full acclimation. Not sure if it was the fish or my water. Do your angels breed in your water?

[crazyred]

Not yet. I've only had them a couple of weeks and they are still roughly quarter size. Not old enough to breed yet. My rams laid eggs, but someone in the tank ate them, so, I'm thinking that if the rams will spawn in my water the angles might too. We'll see....at this point I'm not even sure I have a pair yet, I have just the three juvies.

[JUDO_BADGER]

Just noticed above that I stated hardness as 13 ppm when I meant 13 degrees. Well it looks like you understood. My lfs keeps telling me I need ro water to get the hardness below 10 degrees, but hey who could resist the chance to sell an ro/di unit.

[oscarbartoni]

What is the conditions of the water at the pet shop? If it is simular hard and high pH then your fish should be fine but if their water is comppletely diifferent then you might wish to use some softer water with your tap water for your tamk. I would put some drift wood in the taqnk to lower the ph some as angelfish do prefer more acid water . They can adapt to harder water with a higher ph but do better with softer water that is more acid. some people even breed anglefish in hard water with a high pH. So there is hope for you too.

[JUDO_BADGER]

I believe the lfs buffers the water in there angel tanks so I believe it is much closer to a soft setup. I know their water unbuffered is 7.2 ph and 9-10 degrees hardness.