Can you force pairing in Angelfish?

[Gr0in]

I have an female angel about 2 years old and quite large that I had recently moved to her own 80L tank. She promptly laid eggs all over the filter. Obviously there was no male to fertilise the eggs so they turned white and she eat them. 

I since bought a male which is a bit younger and smaller than the female, in hope of trying and give breeding angels ago. There doesn't seem to be much aggression between the two so I'm hoping she will accept him and pair up eventually (she previously killed another female she was bought up with). She is very plump at the moment and breeding tube is prominent the last couple of days.

What are the chances of these two pairing up? A friend has another male about the same age and slightly bigger than the female he is will to trade as another option.

Should I add more angels to these two and hope someone pairs up? I have an additional two 100L tanks waiting to be setup. Any advise would be great.  

 

 

 

[Adrienne]

Are you 100% certain you have a male in there with her?  You are best to add several younger females and males and let them pair.  With any fish, just like humans, not every male likes the female they are set up with.  It is also not unknown for a male angelfish to breed with several females in the tank.

[Gr0in]

I must be very lucky then, just got home from work to check on how they are doing and the female has plastered one of the leaves with eggs and watched the male following behind doing his thing. Will be interesting to see how things turn out giving they have only been together a couple of weeks. 

[alanmin4304]

I was just about to say that the pearl scale was a male when I read your last post. There should be some good looking offspring. If you want babies you should remove the leaf with the eggs to another bare tank, put a small lead weight on the bottom and an air stone in the front of the eggs. Don't feed them until they are free swimming then feed them on live brine shrimp nuplii. 

[Gr0in]

Yea I have been reading up about breeding angels. I'm new to breeding but  have a couple of spare tanks in preparation of this happening. Pretty excited but this is there first batch so not keeping my hopes up. I'm just stoked they seem to have paired up relatively easily. The female I have had for a while and been one of my favourites. Male was only introduced 2 weeks ago. 

Im wondering wether I let them have a go at raising them or seperate them. I will setup a fry tank tomorrow just in case.

I don't have live brine shrimp can u feed them anything else?

[alanmin4304]

You can feed microworm but it is not as good as live nuplii. Their instinct is to snap at anything the right size that is moving. You can also get freeze dried nuplii but it does not move. They will do well if you feed live nuplii. Chances are they will eat them. I have bred thousands of angels and always removed them. They have good genetics so should not be hard to sell.

[alanmin4304]

If you feed them well they will probably go again in 10 to 14 days. Learn how to hatch brine shrimp--- it is a skill worth learning.

[livingart]

 

[Gr0in]

Finally got my tanks up and running this weekend. Breeding pair moved to the top and hopefully try raising some fry in the bottom sometime in the near future. Angels have been laying eggs every 8 days so hopefully the moved didn't disturb them too much.

 

[Gr0in]

So quick update, got a good spawn today and decided to remove the eggs and try raising them myself. I submerged a 4L jar inside the spare tank with a few drops of methyl blue and air-stone. Removed the leaf and placed inside the jar with the air flow near the eggs. I guess I hope for the best and see what happens. Already setup a brine shrimp hatchery and successfully tried that out couple of weeks back so got that under control when the time comes. 

Will keep posted but any advise would be great.

[alanmin4304]

You look like you have it sorted. They will hatch and still be connected to the leaf by a thread. Be patient and do not feed them until you look at them one morning and they are swarming before you feed them nuplii. Turn the airflow down a bit at that stage and only feed them once in the jar. You will see that their gut changes colour to that of the nuplii. At that stage you can move them to a larger tank and keep feeding them a little and often. Remove any waste each morning with a siphon. 

[alanmin4304]

A suggestion: Your fish have some pretty mixed up genetics. Your female looks like it has black and marble genes and your gold has marble as well. When you raise the young look for black fish without the marble, marble without the black and and gold without the marble. Anything with the pearl scale gene would be good to keep as well. You then be able to breed some really good fish with "clean genetics". 

[Gr0in]

So removed the white eggs today while doing that I noticed they spawn again today on another leaf. Probably a bigger spawn than I have already removed. Not sure what to do, move these as well or just leave them.

 

 

[alanmin4304]

If you look after them and feed them well they will breed every 10 to 14 days. Get more tanks or let them get eaten. 

[Gr0in]

The separated eggs when I checked this morning had all turned white and they ate the others I left with them. They are a relatively new pair but wondering if the male hasn't quite figured out what he is doing yet, as I have not been able to get to the wriggler stage yet. 

[Gr0in]

So by the looks of it the pearlscale with bump on it's head appears to be a female after see the breeding tubes properly. They both look after the spawns (fanning eggs etc) but would explain why I havn't been able to get to the eggs to the wriggler stage. 

So back to square one, trying to find a male partner for one of these two females.

 

[Gr0in]

Finally have some nearly free swimming fry. I have left them with the parents who are in their own 100L tank. Will wait and see what happens, It is only a small spawn but will see how things go.