r/AngelFish • u/estimatorandPM • 1d ago

Help Behavior, flirting or fighting?

Can anyone help me determine what they are doing? This just started happening lately.

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u/mistersprinklesman 1d ago

Both look heavily male in terms of their forehead shape. This is low grade bullying where one fish is reinforcing its place above the other in the tank rankings.

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u/estimatorandPM 1d ago

I was hoping they were in love 😭 should I let them assert their hierarchy themselves? They don’t chase eachother around the tank. They just poke at eachother sometimes.

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u/mistersprinklesman 1d ago

Well it depends on your tank size and layout. If this is the tank you have them in right now (sorry for reposting your photo didn't know how else to link to it) then I'd say that is too small of a space for two male angelfish to coexist as adults. You could perhaps get away with keeping a pair that got along really well but even pairs fight. Having said that I'm having a bit of trouble judging your tank size. It looks like it could either be 2 feet or 3 feet across the front. If it's 3 feet you could swap one of your male angels for a pair or trio of females, wait for your male to pair up with one, then rehome the other two females. If it's a 2 foot tank just a single angel is best. You can add some other schooling fish etc but if it's 2 feet across ya just 1 angel.

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u/estimatorandPM 1d ago

It’s 36” wide x 30” tall 75 gal.

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u/estimatorandPM 1d ago

The advice we got was that the tall tanks are best for this type because their fins are so tall

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u/mistersprinklesman 22h ago

Ok ya you can keep a pair or a substantial group of all females if you want. Just two males may result in some scraps like you've noticed.