Angels not growing....

[Suuske747]

Hello all,
I am new to this board, I found it through the YT vids of these huge aquariua! Most of them really cool and intrigueing, some of them just plain pathethic with too big a fish in too small a tank.....I hope those tanks are the exception!!!

I've got a (I hope I converted it correctly) 119 US gallon tank.... with as main residents 6 Angelfish....
1 of them grows excellently and looks superb.....4 grow slowly, and 1 doesn't grow at all....and that is the one the others contstant pick on..... the middle 4 pick on each other all the time..and the big one picks on all of them.....
What could be the cause of them not really growing?

The fish are fed daily, a variety of frozen food, flakes and green pellets for the Otto's, Cory's and Farlowella's.....

 

[Suuske747]

hhmmmm I seem unable to edit a posted message....
so here's a picture of the tank about half a year ago.....I really should update.....but I am not happy with my plants the way they are now.....

 

[Mr Pleco]

could be a number of things , pecking order establishes who eats first and the most, hormones, genetic runt....I usually take the smaller cichlid and then place him in a seperate tank where he can compete evenly for food, then bulk him up, place him back in with the group and take the next smaller one out...and so on and so on....

 

[Yanbbrox]

hhmmmm I seem unable to edit a posted message....
so here's a picture of the tank about half a year ago.....I really should update.....but I am not happy with my plants the way they are now.....

Looks very nice to me, I think you need to hit 5 posts before you can edit

 

[Suuske747]

thank you Janbbrox,

Yes, in the picture above I was quite pleased with the set up.....in the meanwhile it looking nothing alike anymore....I had to change the woodpart as the original one was decaying....then the echinodorusses changed drastically in leaf-shapes and colour....due to the clay-blocks I added for the plants, the colour of the water has turned yellowish...and I'm still filtering over carbon to get it clear again...
My Anglefish have become cows.....they eat almost all the plants I have in my aquarium....and honestly I do feed enough...or else I wouldn't have a snailplague.....
So over the past 6 months, I constantly added new plants, and now it sort of looks really chaotic..... Basically I would have to start from scratch.....
And I am sooo procrastinating having to do that........I wouldn't know where to start and be afraid I'd kill the fish in the stress of having to catch all.....
Visitors still think it's the coolest they've ever seen, but I myself am so not happy with it......

 

[Suuske747]

thank you Janbbrox,

Yes, in the picture above I was quite pleased with the set up.....in the meanwhile it looking nothing alike anymore....I had to change the woodpart as the original one was decaying....then the echinodorusses changed drastically in leaf-shapes and colour....due to the clay-blocks I added for the plants, the colour of the water has turned yellowish...and I'm still filtering over carbon to get it clear again...
My Anglefish have become cows.....they eat almost all the plants I have in my aquarium....and honestly I do feed enough...or else I wouldn't have a snailplague.....
So over the past 6 months, I constantly added new plants, and now it sort of looks really chaotic..... Basically I would have to start from scratch.....
And I am sooo procrastinating having to do that........I wouldn't know where to start and be afraid I'd kill the fish in the stress of having to catch all.....
Visitors still think it's the coolest they've ever seen, but I myself am so not happy with it......

 

[Mystix212]

I think its just generic cichlid pecking orders. The leader of the pack is the boss and the rest conform. The weakest usually has to struggle to survive in this sense therefore it has a slow growth and a tendency to be harrassed.

 

[jpjn]

Are you sure it's the angels eating the plants and not the snails? When I had a snail infestation, the snails ate all of my plants.

I agree with taking the smaller picked on angel out and giving him time to grow and gain confidence.

 

[Suuske747]

Yes I am sure....I see them do it all the time.....no plant seems to be safe!
I've bought a fortune in plants...some didn't last an hour.....even a thump on the glass would only work for 3 seconds....

Are they bored? Or do I have genetically defect fish?

 

[born2lovefish]

Do water changes at least once a week, turn up the temp. to 80 degrees, and start feeding frozen bloodworms along with flake a couple times a day. Your angels should grow at a decent rate if you do that.