# Do Neons, Zebras, hatchet-fish and Angelfish get along?



## ZooBound (Mar 28, 2011)

HI, relatively new and have had tanks most of my life, ive always just thrown fish in and gone by what my fish do. survival of the fittest ect. but i dont have unlimited funds, actually  and am starting completely over after a bad move loss of a 55 gallon and buying new fish. SO im learing the right way to do things.
i have 2 20 gallon aquariums, one has guppies breeding in it and the numbers are just skyrocketing. i <3 my fish, and have seen the numbers in my other fish dropping, i had 4 zebras and im down to 1, i had 4 hatchetfish and im down to 3, i have a whole school of 10+ neons and I DONT want them to die, they were expensive. 

SO i was thinking about taking everything NON guppie besides the (cleaning crew) that helps cleanup the food on the bottom. :withstup: and putting them in with my two angels, in that 20 all i have is the two angels, an iridescent shark, a pleco, and a chinese algae eater. so it looks a little bit bare in there. since the pleco and algae eater hide all of the time, and so does the shark. 

Everyone seems happy but i dont want to upset the angels and shark and i dont want to lose my other fish due to overpopulating. in a couple months ill have bigger tanks (hopefully) so i can do more... but right now i just want to know if the angels will kill these fish or if they will be ok. 

in the tank i have madagascar lace, java moss, a couple baby java ferns, a few young moneywart? and a leafy amazon sword plant that is young but good sized in a 20 gal. so there should be ample hiding space for these fish, not to mention some other random gargoyles and a tall vertical decoration.

im hoping to breed both the angels and neons later when i have more room.

please let me know what your opinions are.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

Depends on how big the angel fish is and how big the other fish are. In the wild angels eat neons.
My angel is very particular about tank mates. Has been ok with cardinals until last week when he decided they might be somewhat tasty. he has bitten holes in the gouramis, killed a white betta and chased the platies.
He is ok with corydoras and plecs and red bettas.
I guess a lot depends on size and personal preference of the fish.
My previous angel ate up my plants- this one leaves then alone.
My angel is full grown. Medium size guppies are snack food.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

You need to be concerned about the shark, too. They grow huge and will start eating other fish when its mouth gets big enough.


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

The algae eater and the shark will both grow quite large -- about a foot or so. 

Angels are very intelligent fish, meaning that they might very efficiently hunt down and eat your tetras!  If they are still small, you could probably get away with keeping them together until they grow.  

Good luck! And you're so lucky to be able to keep them -- my water is way too hard to keep any South Americans.


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## egoreise (Mar 16, 2011)

My mum keeps adult angels and neon tetras together... but her angels are quite docile.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

HumDedum, My water is about the hardest you can get and my ph is 8.2 and I am able to keep south americans ok. perhaps they don't breed, but as "just pets" they do ok.
I have had ottos live to 5 years old . My cardinals are 4 years and my current blackskirts are over 4 years. My previous blackskirts ( now in fishy heaven) lived to 9 years.
Give them a try- a lot are now raised in captivity and therefor are more adjusted to tap water.


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

I read in a book that hard water can clog up and kill a Cardinal tetra. 

Needless to say, that made me very paranoid, but since I don't intend to breed or anything, I may just take a shot at them. Thanks mousey!


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## Aflat (Apr 16, 2011)

I have hard water also mousey. I was told to use a ph regulator and I do. My fish always did well with out it, so is it not nessary? My fish are all south american also maybe that is why they did so well.


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

I was also told to use pH Down, which did not work at all. I think my water has so many buffer minerals, even chemicals can't bring it down.


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## Aflat (Apr 16, 2011)

Thats wild, it works really well in mine. Humdedum you told me about the fish TB. Do you think my hard water could have anything to do with that or is it normally transmitted from fish to fish?


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

it is best not to fiddle with the hardness, softnes or ph. If you are really concerned about those issues and the fish buy the type of fish that like the conditions you have.Guppies, platies, swords, african cichlids, danios.
To lower ph you can add peat moss to the filter. there is lots of info on the internet about lowering ph and hardness etc if you punch it into the search engine.
There is also plenty of info about what fish like what conditions and yes I have read that hard water can damage the insides of soft water fishes.
Another thing I read today on the Practical Fishkeeping site is that cardinals do best when the temperature is in the very high 80's.
I keep all my tanks at 74-78 in winter, spring and fall and of course in the summer the temps go way high and I turn on the ac to bring it down to 80!!
There is a theory that at higher temperatures the metabolism of an organism speeds up. This leads to a shorter lifespan so it is for that reason that I like the tanks at a cooler temp. Also most community tanks have fish in them that like lower temps, so i have kind of picked a mid range to satisfy everyone.


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## ZooBound (Mar 28, 2011)

emc7 said:


> You need to be concerned about the shark, too. They grow huge and will start eating other fish when its mouth gets big enough.


yes  i had one previously, he was about a foot and a half to two feet long.  i would definitely change the small fish to a different tank, but right now they are all babies lol ty for your response though


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## ZooBound (Mar 28, 2011)

mousey said:


> Depends on how big the angel fish is and how big the other fish are. In the wild angels eat neons.
> My angel is very particular about tank mates. Has been ok with cardinals until last week when he decided they might be somewhat tasty. he has bitten holes in the gouramis, killed a white betta and chased the platies.
> He is ok with corydoras and plecs and red bettas.
> I guess a lot depends on size and personal preference of the fish.
> ...


i know how that is, angel fish have great personalities,and are all different. i once had a huge one that did back flip circles when he was happy to see you  thats what really got me into fish


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## ZooBound (Mar 28, 2011)

humdedum said:


> I was also told to use pH Down, which did not work at all. I think my water has so many buffer minerals, even chemicals can't bring it down.


instead of using chemicals our fish expert tells us to use all reverse osmosis water, instead of tap water, it should always be perfect and clean for the fish. and our tanks stay crystal clear usually,, we can always tell a very big differece if we dont use the RO water and just use tap. then its time to bring out our ph down and nutrafin cycle. and others sometimes if it causes the nitrates and phosphates to go up, tap water here is terrible and getting worse every year.


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## ZooBound (Mar 28, 2011)

thanks for the help everyone, i was worried about it, but now the darn angel died after i got a bigger tank and tried to cycle it too fast. he succombed to the shock and couldnt turn back. i feel horrible i loved him and his awesome personality, but i do see more tanks and angels in the future, i guess for now ill leave the angels out of the equation and try to breed the neons.  appreciate all the comments


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