Angel fish are breeding!

[flynngriff]

Well, I had been wondering if my angel fish have actually paired up... I've found them hovering over some eggs a few times, but none have ever hatched before. I had begun to suspect I just might have a confused pair of females... But a few days ago, I had some wigglers. They've since been eaten, either by the parents, or by some of the fancy pleco carnivores in my small tank, but just knowing they're healthy enough to breed makes me happy!

I've heard it can be difficult to get angel fish to pair up sometimes, and that it's best to start with a group of six or so, and let them pair up naturally... I got these two from completely different stores, about 3 weeks apart... And they are the only two I've ever owned. Guess I won the lottery this time!

-Flynn

[Jonno]

its not really hard, just either luck or u put loads in my angels did the same i just picked 2 random ones and i had a pair..

- Jonno

[Stix87]

The way i pair up is find a male amd female and put them in a tank on their own, they pair up when they start interacting with eachother, and then once their a pair i add another male and female and those pair up and bam! two pairs of angels. My 1st pair is about 3 inches long and 3.5 inches high, is this big enough to start spawning? and my new pair is 1 inch long and about 1.3-1.5 inches high, theur baby koi angels. i know they cant breed yet. How big were yours when they layed eggs?

[Stix87]

btw the female and male of the 1st pair are already showing signs of territoy around this plant with flat wide leaves. Theyere then only two around it when the koi angels or the silver dollars come close the female chases them off. im guessing this is good sign for breeding but now im going to buy a bigger tank

[flynngriff]

Yeah, it does sound like a good sign... I was pretty surprised when my angels started breeding, since they were only about 2.5 inches long and 3 inches tall. I figured they needed to be more fully grown than that, but I guess I was wrong.

[Stix87]

i figured they needed to be bigger since they are mouth brooders and will raise their young in their mouth but the sonner they start breeding the better, shows that their healthy and the tank is in good conditon. The female in general plumps up alot during feeding maybe she;s growing eggs, i dunno she gets fatter than her mate when they feed. Ill monitor, in a month i gotta move them to a 55g anyways so id prefer they wait until the move i dont wanna lose/stress any potiential fry, or have them lay eggs in the old tank And if they eat the fry its normal they tend to eat the 1st few spawns but after that they raise them luckly the silver dollars wont eat them, i hope...

[flynngriff]

The silver dollars will eat them if they can... Sure, they aren't predators, and aren't supposed to eat other fish, but any fish will if given the chance...

[Jonno]

Originally Posted by Stix87

i figured they needed to be bigger since they are mouth brooders and will raise their young in their mouth but the sonner they start breeding the better, shows that their healthy and the tank is in good conditon. The female in general plumps up alot during feeding maybe she;s growing eggs, i dunno she gets fatter than her mate when they feed. Ill monitor, in a month i gotta move them to a 55g anyways so id prefer they wait until the move i dont wanna lose/stress any potiential fry, or have them lay eggs in the old tank And if they eat the fry its normal they tend to eat the 1st few spawns but after that they raise them luckly the silver dollars wont eat them, i hope...

Angelfish aren't Mouth brooders and the female will go plumb because she is holding eggs!

Originally Posted by Stix87

The way i pair up is find a male amd female and put them in a tank on their own, they pair up when they start interacting with eachother, and then once their a pair i add another male and female and those pair up and bam! two pairs of angels. My 1st pair is about 3 inches long and 3.5 inches high, is this big enough to start spawning? and my new pair is 1 inch long and about 1.3-1.5 inches high, theur baby koi angels. i know they cant breed yet. How big were yours when they layed eggs?

And you can't sex angelfish unless your really cleaver or u have had them paired already!

- Jonno

[Stix87]

im actually very good at sexing angel fish so i guess i am clever b/c each time ive tryed to sex them ive been right, as long as i can see them in a school to have other fish to compare them too i can sex them. In a school of about 4-5 the males will grow a hump on their head and the females wont. Out of all the males the alpha male will have the largest hump and the females never grow humps so females are easy the males are tricky but as long as u go for the alpha male u can spot him. once the alpha male has been removed a new male in the tank will be the alpha male so ust coem back in 4-6 weeks and u'll have a new alpha male there for making it again easier for the aqaurist to sex the males