Angel fish lip locking

[BeckyBrandon]

Had my pair of angel fish for over a year now, occasional they have lip locked but nothing really to worry about until lately, they are lip locking so much that their mouths are turning white

They will lip lock for a minute or so then swim around nicely together for hours then they do it again, one also has a few nip marks in his pectoral fin.

We have worked SO hard for a peaceful tank, so sad when they fight.

DP water tested tonight and everything is how it should be, wanted to make sure ammonia wasn't up because I know that can stunt the fins re-growing.

Any ideas on what I should do? Was thinking about putting a separator in for a bit and see if that works.

[EauRouge]

Aw, they don't sound like they are getting on so well :( How old are they? When you say a pair, do you mean a M and a F? How big is the tank?

[BeckyBrandon]

160L tank, I'm pretty sure they're both males... that's the problem isn't it :/

[EauRouge]

Probably! Cichlids are territorial. You could try planting the tank very heavily with stuff like vallis that will break up the sight line, but they'll only get bigger and probably more aggressive.

[BeckyBrandon]

It's a planted tank anyway. What would you do rouge? Sell one or see how they go? I'm quite attatched to them.

Bloody hell, this fish keeping malaky is a nightmare! We had a opaline gourami before these two and he was terrible for nipping so we had to give him away as well. it just seems that any fish above small size is vicious.

[StuffezLaBouche]

Ooh I had an Opalline gourami too and he was vile! He spent his whole day terrorising the rest of the tank.
What did you decide to do regarding the angel? I keep a solitary one in my community tank and he's fine