my female has gone mad

yeah, as the title says my female angel has lost the plot. She's become seriously territorial. I can't go in and clean my glass without her attacking me, the same when I try to prune my plants.

Several of her tank mates are nervous when she's doing the rounds of the tank. My dwarf cichlid darts off to hide a lot of the time.

Is this normal? and if there anything I can do to get her to chill out?

oops.

Sounds like she is pining for a mate.

she's got one!

I saw her nip at a cory last night and then I saw another cory with tatty dorsal fin. I'm actually considering re-homing them both. My dwarf cichlid is terrified of her and now she's nipping cories .... not having that

In that case I would say put the pair in there own tank or rehouse all the other fish. Sit back. And see what happens.

that would be the plan if I had room for another tank. I did have a 110 litre tank set up for a while but I have just 2 double electric sockets in my living room and it was just a mass of extention leads and a lack of space too.

I'm currently on a waiting list to be moved out of this tiny flat and I'm hoping to get somewhere with more space so I can re-set up the 110 litre. If I can do that the angels can stay in the 4ft with the equally aggressive palmeri tetra's and the bossy SAE's and everyone else who just needs a quiet peaceful life can move out into the 800.

Trouble is that waiting list is a mile long and we all know there's a serious lack of social housing in this country and I've no idea if I'll be moving next week or next year or next to never!

Meanwhile I want the best for my fish and I don't want any of them to suffer. I messed up with the palmeri tetra's, had I of known they were semi-aggressive I'd have left them in the shop and had I of done more research into angels I would have put them on the wish list for later when I could keep them alone

It's difficult to know what to do when I don't know if this house move is likely to happen soon or not!

I've had one spawn in the 4ft community tank from them and the eggs were fertile and lasted 2 days before the tetra's ate the lot in the night. I moved the pair out to the 110 litre where she spawned about 4 times but the male ignored her and then ate the eggs when the lights went out. I moved them back to the 4ft and I've had nothing since from them. It'll be a year since she layed any eggs but they still appear to be a pair. I see plenty of pre-spawning behaviour but he seems to get fed up and she changes her mind. I thought it might be cos the temp is too cold but it's the same temp as it was when she laid the first batch of eggs. It is on the cooler end for angels as I'm trying to keep a happy medium for a community tank so it's set to 25 and my digital thermometer tells me it's 25.5 - rising a little on an evening when the lights are on.
None of it makes any sense but she's certainly a moody mare at the moment. I won't stand for her attacking the other fish for no reason. If she had eggs or wrigglers I'd accept it but she hasn't.

Are you sure she's not guarding eggs or wrigglers? it certainly sounds like she is.

I'm certain Rob, she's not guarding any particular area, she's guarding everywhere. It's like she wants the whole tank to herself.

I suppose the best question for me to ask would be - what is the smallest tank size for a pair of angels to live in long term?

60-70 litres at a push, but personally I'd want something nearer 100 litres if they're going to be there indefinitely.

okay thanks Rob, that helps. It means I know I either have to put up with things as they are for now or re-home them - something I don't really want to do.
As already said, I have the 110 litre tank that they could go into or leave them where they are and move my shier fish into there. I need to move to a bigger flat though first!

umm. Everyone talks about litre tanks here and litre tank there. Old fashion I might be but I used a 24x12x12 for breading. Moving them out to a 36x12x12. And finally to a 48x12x12. Admitatley some of the tanks were anything up to 18 high. But that never used to bother me. When I had too many breeding, I used to split a 48 into two 24s. I siliconed a temporary piece of glass in place and using smaller heaters ect.. I had plenty of tanks then and I had a chart to tell me about how many litters each take held but that was mislaid some time ago.

Never mind my age. If it was not because of my heart I'll still be breeding them now. Ho how I miss them

Ho!
I forgot.
Like Rob I'll say don't be surprised if you come down one morning to a tank of riddlers.

right, well. The male is following her around like he's love struck today and she's cleaning leaves all over the tank. No one is safe. She's chasing every fish away from every where. She's wanting to spawn - of that much I'm certain. What I think might be going on is she's confused about where is the best spot for a spawn and I think that might be why she's gone so territorial.

Yesterday she was cleaning leaves on the left side of the tank and up until lunch time she was chasing my other fish away from that side. Tonight she's cleaning leaves on the right side and chasing fish away! She's certainly confused.com lol

I've given them a spawning cone but oh no, she's not interested in a spawning cone ...