Male or female Angelfish?

[Jaide]

[livingart]

what size and age is the fish

usually hard to tell for me until they are pairing off or breeding

[lmsmith]

If we're taking bets, I'm gonna say male. Only cuz it's skinny, doesn't look like it's holding eggs. If he/she doesn't have a friend in there, eggs probably won't be there.

[Jaide]

No idea how old it is - I also have 2 golden angels in the tank - since I introduced this fella (I'm picking it's a he) they've both starting laying eggs constantly - the thing is, he's not doing his job so wondered if it's actually a confused male or another girl that's setting my first two off.

[lmsmith]

Keep a look at it for a period of a couple of weeks. If his/her tummy swells even if she hasn't just eaten, it's a girl. Girls often set each other off to lay.

When you say he's not doing his thing, do the eggs turn white, or just get eaten?

[Jaide]

Before he came along, my 2 goldens behaved like normal angels - get a bit aggressive every now and then and that was it, never once laid eggs - until he came. A week after I got him I find eggs in the tank, didn't see who'd done it but he was paired off with one of the goldens and they were behaving protective of the eggs together - I removed the eggs but they all died anyway so assume they were never fertilised. The same couple laid eggs together again, then I saw my other golden fill with eggs and he paired off with her - still the eggs all died. I finally saw the pair in action the other day - the golden laying them and he passing over them but nothing coming from him, if that makes sense - I would have thought if he was fertilising them, there'd be something visible - at least he's trying I suppose.

[lmsmith]

Before he came along, my 2 goldens behaved like normal angels - get a bit aggressive every now and then and that was it, never once laid eggs - until he came. A week after I got him I find eggs in the tank, didn't see who'd done it but he was paired off with one of the goldens and they were behaving protective of the eggs together - I removed the eggs but they all died anyway so assume they were never fertilised. The same couple laid eggs together again, then I saw my other golden fill with eggs and he paired off with her - still the eggs all died. I finally saw the pair in action the other day - the golden laying them and he passing over them but nothing coming from him, if that makes sense - I would have thought if he was fertilising them, there'd be something visible - at least he's trying I suppose.

I've watched my angels spawn hundreds of times I thought I was blind because I couldn't see anything visible. I have angel babies right now though, and he's the only male I have. When he was passing over him, did his bits look pointed, or rounded like the female laying?

[Jaide]

He's rounded - a lot less going on for him than the girls.

OK, so maybe he is doing his job and there's nothing visible to show that - maybe I should remove the eggs next time before they eat them. Problem is, they lay and eat - so if I remove them it has to be asap otherwise this fella doesn't get a chance to do his job. I read in another thread that it can take time for Angels to get it right and stop eating the eggs, didn't realise it would be so many times though so will just leave them and see how they go next time.

[alanmin4304]

My guess would be that it is a male and also that it carries a gold gene and a stripeless gene (blusher) as well as zebra and lace. If you put the pair into a seperate bare 50 litre tank with a slate hanging near the surface they should spawn again in a couple of weeks if well fed, and you can easily remove the eggs and hatch them. Gold is recessive and you should therefore get some interesting offspring.