When an angelfish moves with its tank, the hardware is the easy part — glass, filter, heater, and light are all visible. What the new owner cannot see is the system of habits and history that keeps that fish thriving, and an angelfish is a long-lived, territorial cichlid whose behaviour only makes sense with its past attached. The records below are the difference between a smooth handover and a new owner guessing while the fish sulks, fights, or fades.
The Fish's Own File
Start with identity and basics: the angelfish's age as closely as you know it, where you got it, its current size, and a recent clear photograph — angelfish markings are individual enough that a photo genuinely identifies it. Record what it eats in practical terms: the food types it accepts, roughly how much, how many times a day, and any foods it refuses or spits out, because a fish that 'won't eat' in week one is often a fish being offered the wrong thing in the wrong way. Note where it sleeps, how it behaves at feeding, and any quirks — the individual knowledge that never appears on a care sheet for the species.
Water and Routine Records
Angelfish are warm-water fish, and stability matters more than any single number, so record the conditions it is actually used to: the heater setting and usual temperature, recent test readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH, and the routine that holds them there — what percentage of water you change, how often, and how you treat new water. Describe the filter maintenance rhythm too: how often media is rinsed and in what, and when parts were last replaced. A new owner who copies your routine keeps the bacteria colony and the chemistry steady; one who deep-cleans everything on day one can crash both.
Tank Mates, Territory, and Health
Social history is the section new owners most regret missing. List every current tank mate by species and number, which fish the angelfish has paired or bonded with, any fish it has bullied or been bullied by, and the territory it defends — angelfish claim corners and vertical landmarks, and a scape rearranged during the move can trigger a fresh round of disputes the new owner will not understand without this context. If it has spawned, note that too, since a breeding pair behaves very differently from a single fish.
Health history should be honest and dated in plain language: any illness episodes, what the signs were, how they were resolved, and any losses in the tank during its time with you. Add the equipment list with ages and settings — filter model type and age, heater wattage, light type and its daily on/off schedule — so failures six months later can be judged against how old things already were.
Making the Handover Stick
Gather all of it before moving day, walk the new owner through the feeding and water-change routine once in person if you can, and stay reachable for the first month, when the questions always come. Sending the fish with a bare tank and good wishes is how a healthy angelfish becomes a problem fish in a fortnight.
The cleanest way to make sure none of it is lost is KinsLe's Transferrable Profiles: the angelfish's diet, water readings, tank-mate history, health notes, and equipment details transfer to the new owner as one intact profile, so the care you built continues from the first day in its new home instead of being reconstructed from memory.