First Time - Angelfish Breeding

[beautylovetruth]

Dear AA, I need your help!

The last few days I've been noticing my potential Angelfish pair keeping all the other fish away from the middle section of my tank. Today I look and I find eggs on a clay pot!! Sorry for the head tilt to see the pics right side up.

Here's the eggs:

And the parents:

Since this is my first time breeding... (and by COMPLETE accident)..what are your suggestions for making sure everything is safe for babies and other habitants :well:

[jvision]

If it's their first spawn, there's a good chance they'll eat the eggs or fry as soon as they hatch. Sometimes they get the parenting thing right away, but it's rare for line-bred angels. Moving the pair to your 22gal to breed might be a good idea after a few attempts in the community tank. Sometimes young parents need the threat from dithers to protect their kids; sometimes they never get it. If they don't get the fry to at least the free swimming stage, move them to their own tank and pull them as soon as the eggs hatch... if they don't even get that far, pull the eggs as soon as their laid and hatch them artificially.

[beautylovetruth]

Thanks Jason! Helpful as always

I'm going to leave them be as I don't have the means to make a great breeding tank in the 22 gallon right now.

Guess I'll have to see what happens. I'll keep posting as I get developments.

ETA: Watched them for about 20 min... it's so cute to watch them protect and fan, rinse repeat. I'm sure it's no fun for the other fish but it's really something cool to see.

Edited December 15, 2013 by beautylovetruth

[beautylovetruth]

Hi all,

So the parents had a hearty egg breakfast this morning. Oh well. They're still protecting the area somewhat so perhaps in a few more days there will be more eggs

[jvision]

If they're well fed, you can expect a spawn every 7-20 days.

[syno321]

If the parent's don't consume their spawn, I'm betting that those Clown Loaches will.

[Stefan]

Hi,

If you do not have a breeding tank you can use a jar - I would get rid of the clay pot and use an ~artificial leaf~ made from a green plastic container that you can cut to your desired shape for the fish to deposit eggs on(has to fit the jar that you will be using); after they deposit the egs on the ~leaf~ just slide it into the jar and seal it - you can improvize a top from a piece of fine net fixing it to the jar with rubber bands; the sealing top needs to have a tube size hole in it as you will have to introduce an air stone into the jar for proper aeration and water ventillation; the airstone has to provide fine bubbles so the air can leave the jar through the net; the jar has to be fully submerged into your tank this way you do not have to worry about temperature fluctuations; as Jason said at the begining the young parents are just learning parenting skills and this is valid for eggs fertilisation too, so do not be upset if for the first few times only a few from the initial number of eggs will hatch - the eggs that are not fertilized will become white and they have to be removed(I would not recomend this though if you did not do it before) or they will cause fungus - instead of removing the unfertilized eggs, you can add methylene blue into the jar( you can find this usually at any pet store - please read the instructions when you buy it) to keep the fungus under control until you will have fry - you will probably still have fungus but it will be somewhat contained until the fry can swim and you can remove the unfertilized eggs safer.

Before the fry can swim they need no food, but they will be ready to eat as soon as they swim, so you will have to be prepared for that - the best results I had food wise is using artemia salina(brine shrimp) - you can buy unhatched eggs of this crustacean at your LFS and just have to follow the instructions how to hatch the eggs(it is verry easy...).

The fry can live in the jar for several weeks - if the jar is big enough even for a longer time - as you do not have to move the pair with the eggs, a 10 gal tank( depending on the number of baby angelfish that you will have) can be used to raise the fry - if you have more than 50, a 10 gal would not be enough to bring them to the size the other fish would not be a threat.

I hope this helps you somewhat, and I wish you luck

Edited December 22, 2013 by Stefan

[Ghostface]

It's always amazing to see fish spawn and take care of the eggs. Looks like people have already given you some great advice, best of luck. When I was breeding, I had the eggs in a 10 gal tank until they were about the size of a dime, then moved them into the 50 gal tank...Had around 150-200 each spawn.

You will want to get rid of all the deformed or flawed fry early on as they wont sell, and just take up space. It's hard at first,..the older they get the worse you feel about it haha at least it was like that for me.

It's a lot of fun to raise them, but also lots of work, but worth it in the end.

Best of luck