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hey there.. i'm really worried about my female zebra angel.. she is constantly getting pecked at by the male.. her back fin has been split and her side have all white stuff.. loooks like loose skin.. from the pecking.. dont know how to explain it but u noe wat i mean:#(..

i am really worried about my angel.. what can i do to prevent this.. they had layed eggs yesterday and the male ate them.. they were acting fine until today!!
please help!!

r0b3y

It sounds as if he is getting very protective after mating. You need to remove the Female and QT her for treatment.

I would treat her with a mix of Melafix and Primafix.

After she is better. Rearrange the tank, and reintroduce both of them as if they were new to the tank.

Keep an eye on them. Remove him after they spawn again.

The above advice is sound, and should definitely be followed. Male angelfish (or sometimes even the females) can become aggressive and/or territorial after spawning, and will often pick on their partner. They may eat their eggs prior to this, but will 'guard' them just the same. They are cichlids after all, so they try to drive off any fish that appear to be threatening their offspring. Somehow, the aggression gets transferred onto the breeding partner.

Angelfish aren't great breeding cichlids, they often eat their eggs and harass each other. They have been bred for color and tail variations through the years, not parenting skills. This is why captive-bred angelfish can be a pain to spawn and breed.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Agreed. I have found that housing them in a large tank in a community environment with other angels and dither fish helps spread the aggression around and reduces/virtually eliminates any actual damage being inflicted on individual fish.

It seems that fish with very strong protective instincts need an outlet for their aggression. My best parenting fish work in perfect harmony in the community scenario outlined above. In a breeder tank, one or the other of the pair would thoroughly thrash its mate. If I did not intervene, death was a certainty.

If you have no other tank available, get or make a tank divider. Only attempt to reintroduce the fish after the female is completely healed and well conditioned and ready to spawn again. Sometimes, once they have a falling out they never make up again, other times its back to situation normal. All depends upon the fish, but IME, once they've done this, it will happen again unless you change the tank dynamics and specs.

My fish are excellent parent raisers if the have an outlet for their protective instincts.

Without dithers present to absorb the instinctive drive to protect the eggs or fry, my pair will spawn and all looks fine, for hours or maybe for days, then something will set off one or the other parent and the fireworks begin.

Maybe one thinks the other one ate a fry, who knows? But one or the other gets really miffed and apparently decides the other one must die. I am not refering to mild nipping. I mean serious full force repeated attacks, mate head down, in total submission, fins getting shredded, sides scraped of body slime, scales removed. I am convinced the attacks would have lead to death without intervention.

In some spawns, it was the female that went on the warpath. In other spawns it was the male. No apparant rhyme or reason.

The history. This pair first began spawning in a planted 90 full of other fry loving fish. With each sucessive attempt, they managed to go longer, learning how to defend the eggs and then the wigglers from attack.

As I did not wish them to parent raise, (already had enough angels on the go) I blacked out the tank at night, hoping the other fish would then eat the spawn and eliminate the tension, but no such luck. The female sat on the eggs and kept them safe from harm while the male patrolled around her. This was one very determined pair!

After repeated attempts, they raised fry to freeswimming. 8 hours crusing the tank with all the other fish not daring to even look at the fry! They only lost that set when the fry were swept into the wet dry.

I figured this pair had earned the chance to parent raise (how could I deny them?) so gave them their own tank for a while. They raised a couple of spawns, but without other fish present, invariably, sooner or later, one parent would nearly kill the other. I had to watch them like a hawk and be prepared to step in at any time. They are now back in the community tank and no longer beat each other up. They are too busy keeping the other fish in line!

The offspring from this pair have proven to have strong parenting instincts.