My Angelfish Experiment
This experiment/post was inspired from a response I received when I posed a question on this forum few days ago. I’m not very scientific but I will share my experience and update this post from time to time.
Here’s the topic: Will angelfish view small fish such as cardinal tetras and pseudomugil luminatus as prey if they are introduced into the aquarium when the angelfish are young?
My hypothesis is: If you add small prey type fish to the aquarium when the angelfish are juveniles they will not be looked upon as a food source and will be ignored by the Angelfish when they reach maturity. This will not be the case if the angelfish are mature and fish smaller than the existing cardinals or Pseudomugils are introduced.
The angelfish I have were purchased online from Lee Gordon at
https://angelmania.net/ (good seller/good communication.) There are six in total and they are about 9 to 10 weeks old (nickel sized bodies.)
The Aquarium is 75 gallons and has been running for about 4 weeks. It was set up to be low tech, it’s heavily planted, and I have tried to follow the “Walstad method” to the best of my ability.
The angelfish have been living with 6 Panda Corydoras and a male. Two days ago I added 8 Red Neon Blue Eye Rainbowfish (Pseudomugil luminatus.) They are very small about ¾” and were purchased from
https://www.bwaquatics.com/ (good sellers/good communication.)
When I first added the blue-eyed rainbow fish into the aquarium the angelfish were initially very curious and followed around the smallest ones. I noticed this predatory behavior so I immediately fed the angelfish flaked food. This changed their focus and they stopped chasing the new tank mates. As of today, I have not lost a Pseudomugil to predation. They are schooling nicely and the angelfish do not seem to be paying them any attention.
I have 15 Cardinal tetras on order from a local fish store and they will be going into my quarantine tank on Friday. I will update this post if I lose any small fish to predation and when I introduce new fish to the angelfish.