Male killed mate in Breeding tank

Hello folks,

I had a sad turn of events yesterday, I bought apparently proven breeding pair of Veil Fin Angels from my LFS. They showed me the apprent offspring growing in a tank in the store.

The pair seemed quite happy in their little shop tank swimming with some other fish..

I took them home and placed them in a 35 Gallon tall, well cycled tank and within minutes the Male attacked the female.. As soon as he hit her the first time I split them up but sadly the first attack was fatal and within minutes the Female was spinning round in circles and then simply died,, I tried everything I know to save her

I guess I could ask a million and one questions as to why this happened what sparked his temper but they are Chiclids after all...

They where the only fish in the tank.

The Male seems very happy and settled now, even though he is silver, black his colours look very striking.

I am concerned but would like to try and add a different Female. Have read so many articles about adding smaller Angels to an established Male but hes not really established yet being in the tank 2 days.

I am sad as they seemed perfectly happy in the tank in the shop..

Then within minutes booom!!!! all hell breaks loose in the new tank on their own

What advice would people give about adding an extra female, could I add some small baby fish to be rehomed in other tanks later on ?

Advice on the best procedure to add another female.

The tank is a standard measurment 35 Gallon High

Sorry to hear of your loss.
unfortunately it's not really possible to know why he turned on her, assuming it was a genuine pair. It does happen that a well established pair can have a falling out, but whilst these can often be very violent, it's unusual for that to result in a death, and for that to happen so quickly.
In terms of repairing him, I'd look at trying to introduce several females at the same time, and remove the others once he's found a partner.

Thanks for the reply.

I went round a couple of LFS and managed to buy 3 adult Females for him to choose from. I often see single adult Females or 2 or more as I guess people buy them when they are that tiny little size and don't realise they grow so big.

It so interesting  to watch how this Male behaves, within minutes he decided he liked one Golden Marble Angle fish and they have been swimming together for 5 hours straight ignoring the others totally,

I do not normally .like to mix strains and colours but I guess that the well being of the fish is most important.

The Male is a standard black.white Veil Tail and the Golden Marble Female is slightly smaller than him another reason why he may be happy with the match. I am keeping the lights of the breeding tank too doe 24 hours.

As its a smaller for the breeding pair .... I want to move the other Angels he is totally ignoring, to the 55 Gallon 4 foot asap.

Its really giving me a fascinating look into the nature of these beautiful fish.

I was shocked at how quick the Male seems to make up his mind if he likes a partner or not or maybe hes just very ready to mate LOL:D

I am not sure how mixing strains of Angels is viewed but for now I want the well being of the fish to be the main priority.

He has just ignored the other 3 fish all together so I think I will move them to an awaiting 55 Gallon tank.

when cichlids, such as angels, choose a mate they don't care what colour that mate is. Should they manage to breed and produce young the fry will be a mixture of colours due to the complicated genetics they carry.

Pterophyllum is better at explaining the genetic side of things so I'll leave it to him to figure out what you might see from the fry

Happy to read it worked out for you

Basically, all the angels you're likely to encounter are the same species, Pterophyllum scalare, the other species P. altum & P. leopoldi are only rarely available. The different colours result from single genetic mutations, so pairing two different varieties will simply result in a mixture of colours, depending on the exact genetics of the fish you may just get a couple of varieties like the parents, or you might end up with a surprising range of different youngsters, that's half the fun of breeding your own, the surprise of what pops out!

Nice to know ....the new pairing is doing very nicely too.

I added a couple more Amazon swords for hiding spaces too.

I am experience with Malawi Chiclids and any is frowned upon, Like you said they seem the same species. Iwill get round to posting a pic of the two in the breeding tank in next day or so.

I also want the challenge of the smaller tank too around the 125 Liter mark is a nice size tank though I have the 55 Gallon community tank in the living room the other half wants me to keep smaller tanks in the spare bedroom lol  for breeding:D

The other two Female Angels are in the 55 Gallon now and seem happy in a community setting. The breeding tanks are all Blackwater Amazonian and shhuved into my 'Man Room; LOL


Going with less costly Angels till I have a lot more experience to go to Altums,