View Full Version : Angelfish breeding q's
AngelicGreenTerror
09-25-2005, 5:25 PM
I am wondering would it be safe to breed 2 Angels in a 20g with tankmates, but lots of plants ? And if so, what kind of decorations, plants, gravel, and all that good stuff should I use? If I can't, I will attempt to move my fish and try to breed Convicts in my 20g.
JohnnyPhillips
09-25-2005, 8:32 PM
I think it would but ive only gotten my angels to spawn on the marble slates but all the times that the angels got that far they were very aggressive against tank mates and i have a 45 gallon tank and they beat the other fish very badly had to move them to their oun seperate tank.
I have used 29g tanks for just the breeding pair and 55g and larger community tanks but I wasn't trying to raise fry, I sold them off once I had mated pairs.
bluedempsey
09-27-2005, 8:22 PM
i think a 20g tank is a little small for a breeding pair of angels
much less with other tank mates
gomezladdams
09-27-2005, 9:42 PM
I would think you need a bigger tank without any tankmates...but just a few weeks ago I was at a chinese food restarant they had a 29 gal with a pair of angels spawning on the filter tube,with 4 large goldfish and a big pleco in the tank.I wouldnt give the fry much chance for survival though.
I've seen them done in 20's as young pair. If you use tank mates expect them to be dither fish. You will need danios or something or else the angels will probably eat thier fry anyways.
As soon as the fry start to looklike real fish they are at risk but your 20g will make a great grow out tank if you throw in some elodea or cobomba
fry that grow up with their parents take care of there fry from what i've heard. it's the angels that get board of not defending against anything that eat their eggs. Then as they are smaller angels as guppie said the parents might eat their young if they don't know what they are doing. I would give it a couple times before I called it quits as angels will lay eggs when fry are free swimming.
LAMBDACHI
10-15-2005, 3:05 AM
Yes you can breed them in a 20g. even a 10g is fine. Make sure that you only have them two alone, if there are other fish both angels can become aggressive towards them because they are protecting their eggs/fry. Any plants are fine although they preffer the giant sagittaria also any plant that is from the cryptocoryne species or vallisneria spiralis are ideal. Have a dark background. If they hatch parents will take care of them don't turn lights on and off because parents might get scared and eat the fry. Remember that you will need a larger tank in the future as the fry grows. Have some of the floor bare, there will be less contamination. My angel fish spawned in a plastic broad-leaved plant. Daily water change is required. Angels may even lay the eggs on the aquarium glass.
My angels usually laid on the spiral vals or cryptos if they laid on plants. In the 29g I had a large flat piece of snowflake obsidian standing up on end that most of them used and large pieces of polished tiger eye in the larger tanks tucked into the plants that were popular.
AngelicGreenTerror
10-15-2005, 1:49 PM
I just gotta find a female angelfish that my male won't kill..
I always cheated by buying several about the size of quartes and letting them pair off.
AngelicGreenTerror
10-15-2005, 2:34 PM
I always cheated by buying several about the size of quartes and letting them pair off.
I don't have that much money or a big sized tank unless I divided my mom's tank so that I could raise 6 individuals and some of my fish in there.
I would start them in my 55g community and they would start pairing off around 3"+ then I would move them to the 29gs or the 150g community, the leftovers I would trade out. I was getting them for less then $2 each and getting $38 in credit for proven pairs. One of the few fish that paid for themselves. For a while I even had a waiting list for them.
Angels will pair off at a little over quarter size. It's best to let them pick their own mates.
Angels courting can look aggressive if you've never seen it before. The fish chase each other, nip, and then lock lips in a tug of war. They are testing each other out, sort of like seeing if the other is "worthy" of spawing.
Are you 100% sure that you have a male? It's really hard to tell until the angels spawn and you see who did the egg laying. Females who are "in the mood" can be quite agressive to another female in the tank or a young male who's not ready yet.
I used a 20 gallon tall for a breeding pair. An Amazon sword potted, a piece of slate, a heater, and a sponge filter in the tank, nothing else, no gravel.
I removed the eggs, hatched them in a mason jar, then trasfered the wrigglers to a 1/2 filled 10 gallon. Large water changes done daily, raise the water in the 10 gallon as the fry grow, then put the babies in plastic storage tubs to grow them out.
It is a lot of work if you do it this way as opposed to letting the parents raise the fry, but a 20 gallon just isn't big enough for 100's of fry and two parents, plus dithers. Maybe a 40 gallon would work.
The babies eat newly hatched brine shrimp, even day old brine shrimp are too big for them to eat for awhile. One 2 liter pop bottle hatchery of shrimp is enough for one day. Start feeding baby angels when they are free swimming, not wrigglers.
Oh, that pleco of your's would make fast work of any eggs laid in your current 20 gallon set up. Once mommy and daddy are sleeping, that guy will have the eggs slurped up! ;)