Finicky Angle Fish? I have a fish who is very fussy. Is there a better food for Angel Fish?

Question

I got two angle fish. I think one is male and the other female. The male (Mr. Lyoid Wilson AKA BIG DADDY) has gotten huge while his mate, Mrs. Bridget Wilson, is half Big Daddy's size. Big Daddy eats like crazy and I think he has eaten guppies. She is always interested in food but mostly spits out her flakes. What will this fish eat?

Answer 1

The reason one is larger than the other is that it is the dominant fish and eats first and most. The other is intimidated and that is why it doesn't eat as well. You will probably find the smaller one face in to a corner of the tank one of these days. After a fish has been intimidated for a long period, they sometimes just decide to stop eating and die. The face in to the corner is peculiar to angels and some other cichlids. Just before it dies, it will become very dark. Discus do the same thing when they die.

Angelfish are cichlids and that is what they do, establish dominance over other fish in the tank. Angelfish do better in large groups, that way the agression is spread out over more fish and one is not singled out like yours.

I have 10 gold crown white angels in a tank, and they get along as well as can be expected. All were the same size when I got them 6 months ago, but 3 are huge now and 3 are still quite small. The middle 4 are close to the big ones but obviously are not in the "ruling class."

Two of the large ones have laid eggs together, but with that many fish in the tank, they ate them within a couple of days. If I decide to keep them and breed them instead of taking them to the fish auction, I will give them their own tank and let them make more angelfish.