angel fish information!?!?!?!?!?

Question

i am getting a new tank for xmas :)

it measures 50 x 50 x 34 cm (l x h x w)

i think it is 22 gal but it is quite tall

it has all lights and filter heater and air pump and everything

i want to buy some angel fish, is this tank big enough and how many angel fish do u think i could keep

if this tank is not big enough :( what fish do u recomend)

serious answers please

all info greatly appriciated

Answer 1

Hi there,

Congratulations on your fishtank ;)

Unfortunately, angelfish are too big for this tank. Angels can grow to be 5 inches wide and 7 inches tall; they need a lot of room. Also, while not schoolers per se, angelfish are very social fish and are happiest when they have other angels around.

Because of the dimensions of the tank, you can not have too many fish. Fish with large footprints (total surface area) can accomodate more fish because there is more ground space, and because it allows for more gas exchange.

But you still have lots of choices.

First of all, have you cycled a tank before? In the wild, and in established tanks, there are nitrifying bacteria that break down toxic ammonia from fish waste and excess food into less toxic nitrates. In a brand new tank, these bacteria don't exist, so any fish in the tank will produce ammonia, which, not being broken down by bacteria, will kill or weaken the fish. So, it is vital to cycle your tank.
There are a few methods. Do you have access to an established tank? These bacteria live in the gravel and in the filter cartridge, so if you can get some from another tank, you can put the bacteria right into your tank (don't let the gravel or filter cartridge dry out). If you do this, in a day or two, your tank will beready for fish.
Another way is to get Bio-Spira. It is the actual live bacteria in a little pouch, and your tank will instantly be ready for fish.http://fishstoretn.com/bio_spira.html

Other methods, which include putting a source of ammonia in the tank and letting the bacteria build up on its own, or putting a fish in and letting the fish produce ammonia (which borders on animal cruelty, because the fish will suffer from the ammonia in the tank), take 2 to 6 weeks before your tank is ready. If you rush that, any fish you buy may die, so try one of the instant methods I mentioned above (bio-spira or gravel from another tank)

When stocking a tank, you have to look at the levels of your tank. You have the bottom, the middle and the top. Let's start at the bottom, shall we? :)
Bottom is usually where your cleanup crew is. That's algae eaters, plecos, cories, etc.
A school of at least 6 corydoras julii or sterbai is great:
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/People/h-Cory-julii.jpg - you should have at least a 20 gallon tank to get a school of these.
or you can get a school of oto cats: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/oto_cat.jpg
Get a school of at least 5 of these (tank minimum: 15 gallons). They eat algae.
I would suggest that you DON'T get a plecostomous. Most of them grow to 18-24" and are poop machines. They will dirty your water very quickly. If you MUST get a pleco, get a bristle-nose, they only get 4-5".
If you get any of these fish, be sure to supplement their diet with zucchini slices, spirulina pellets, and shrimp pellets, as they will not get enough food otherwise.

Next, you want your mid-to-upper range. A school of 8 tetras is great for this level.
Some nice fish are (choose one of the following):
neon tetras http://img225.exs.cx/img225/3290/neontetra6mc.jpg
cardinal tetra http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/Fishpics/cardinals.jpg
lemon tetra http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/fish/034.jpg
harlequin rasbora http://tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/templates/BMan1Blue/images/profile_pics/fish_profiles_heteromorpha1.jpg
glowlight tetra http://www.solodvds.com/images/fish/Hemigrammus_erythrozonus_s.jpg
zebra danio http://www.winternet.com/~mchristi/fish/zebradanio.jpg
... the list goes on and on and on.

You'll want a centrepiece fish, I suggest either a pair of kribensis cichlids:
http://www.cichlids.dk/thumb/28887.jpg

Or a pair of bolivian rams:
http://www.azgardens.com/images/Ram-Bolivian.gif

Or ONE dwarf gourami:
http://www.biol.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/users/naibunpi/Image/Gourami-photo-old.jpg

Be sure to keep up with weekly water changes of about 20-40% of the water.

And above all, before you buy anything, go to your local fish store, take a look around and write down the various fish you like. Then come home, research them, ask questions about them, before buying them.

Answer 2

That tank is a bit too small. While the height of the tank is perfect, the width is a little too small. You could maybe get away with one angel, but i definatly wouldn't add more than that.

Tall tanks are a bit harder to stock since they don't provide a lot of swimming room. You could try a school of corycats for the bottom, and a few smaller tetras and some otocinclus algae eaters. If you get an angelfish though, don't get neon tetras, as angels eat those as snacks ;)

Answer 3

In my opinion you'd be better off to get a larger tank. They are much easier to keep balanced and healthy then the smaller tanks (depending on what kind of fish you stock) Angel fish are very nice fish to keep...(a bit delicate) but very nice...I have two in a 55g. From what I have read, 20g is the minimum for keeping Angels in. (I'd say a pair and that's it) but since the dimensions of your tank seem to be tall and skinny, I'd opt for a larger tank and so would the fish. =)

If you are keeping that size tank then go with smaller fish. There are some really nice looking fish in the community family of fish that you can stock and have a nice balanced aquarium. Dwarf gouramis are very pretty!

Answer 4

For Angels tall is better, but I'm not sure 22 gallons is enough for angels. Personally before you buy any fish test your tap water's pH, and hardness. Then go to a site like http://www.liveaquaria.com/ , and check out the recommend pH, kH, and temp range of the fish you like. Angelfish are soft water fish and don't do well in hard basic water. Molly on the other hand do best in hard basic water.

Answer 5

Angel fish can grow very big - mine quickly outgrew it's tank and we had to get a bigger one. I'd say ours was about 6 inches big before it died.
One word of warning - we bought a shoal of baby tetras .17 half grown tetras, in fact. The next morning we woke to find lots of broken little bodies floating around. The angel fish had a very happy look on its face. It's natural prey is the tetra. It must have thought itwas in fishy heaven.

Answer 6

Angel Fish should be really great in your new aquarium. As for how many you can keep-that depends on their size/species.This is a little bit of a downer, but when angel fish are small they easily get sucked into aquarium filters. They aren't strong swimmers. Make sure your filter is either an undergravel filter or watch them closely to see how they behave around the filter.

Answer 7

with that size tank you can get between 6-12 angels depending on what angels u get. ask the shop assisstant what size the fish are likely to grow to first. before u get abgels u will need to get more hardy fish i.e. neons or guppys and only 4 or 5 of them to start the tank off. make sure the water is in the tank and the filter is running for a minimum of 2 weeks before adding any fish. i recomend a water test also before adding any fish. hope that helps

Answer 8

Its one inch of fish per gallon, your tank should be big enough. But remember Angel Fish get to be huge, and can be territorial at times. If you want other fish then the Angel Fish get Mollies, they have live baby's and they are so pretty to watch. But just remember the other fish will eat them if you don't don't them in a different area.

Answer 9

2 at most in a 22 gal, thats what i used to keep but they seemed quite unhappy until i moved them to the 4 foot tank.

they can grow quite big.

Answer 10

get a herring, theyre good fun and when you get fed up with then oick them out, supper innit