# First Angel Fish Spawn!!!



## Scoutmaster Steve (Jan 12, 2006)

I get home tonight after my Thursday night scout meeting (I am Scoutmaster) and my Angel fish have a surprise for me. They, 2 of six, have spawned on my Eheim riser tube. I realise that in this community tank the chances of the eggs lasting is slim to nil but I am still excited. As a young teen I tried and tried to get Angels that would mate to no avail. Now in my second childhood I have lucked out and have a mating. 

Now my questions. Will these same two Angels continue to breed exclusively or will they pair indiscriminately. Also which is the male, pointy or thicker and blunt tube. Last for now, when might they breed again.

Thanks for any replies
Steve

PS best part is I bought these guys (and girls) at dime size


----------



## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Congratulations! Pretty exciting, isn't it?

I've never bred Angels, but if I'm remembering right, once they pair up, they usually stay a pair. I think in many cases it may be necessary to remove the other Angels from the tank so they aren't harassed by the pair guarding their territory.


----------



## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

Scoutmaster Steve said:


> Now my questions. Will these same two Angels continue to breed exclusively or will they pair indiscriminately. Also which is the male, pointy or thicker and blunt tube. Last for now, when might they breed again


I believe they will stay a pair ( ain't love great)
IME the male is pointy'r
They will breed again in 2 weeks time if they lose the brood


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Cool! I used to breed angels and have sold hundreds of the buggers to LFS's. I'll probably try it again soon since one of my long-term goals is to watch two angels raise fry to maturity in a well-planted tank.

Angels will definately mate for life if you let them and will furiously chase everything else away at spawning time. If you ever want to get serious about trying to raise the fry there are 2 options. You can remove everything except for the parents or you can remove the fry to a hatching tank. The fry are fairly easy to raise since they're big enough to eat BBS. Send me a PM if you want to try it.


----------



## Scoutmaster Steve (Jan 12, 2006)

Well thanks for the replies all. As I expected the other occupants got the eggs during the day today. No time to seperate any one this time. The parents are still hovering in the nesting spot...so sad. I didn't expect it yet as they are stil fairly small I thought. Now they can calm down and heal their fins a bit as they did trash themselves a bit this time. I wonder if the fact that I pulled the CO2 of that tank a few days ago had anything to do with the spawn? I have another CO2 setup on the way but had moved the one I have to my 125 to give my new plants a kick start till the one I ordered arrives.


----------



## star rider (Feb 27, 2006)

Angels tend to stay a pair..but that is not always true..sometimes they squabble and you may need to seperate them..

most likley they will spawn again..try adding a slate then pull it after the spawn and place it in a different tank add an airstone and I think it's methyl blue(a fungicide). good luck

you may find more info about angels at :

http://www.angelfish.net/


----------



## cranetech (Feb 1, 2006)

Wow, maybe its mating season, mine spawned for the first time last night. as of this morning they are still maintaining most of the eggs. I dont know about the CO2, i have actually been adding more to my tank lately. Perhaps its sustained PH change that triggered it.
if somehow the eggs manage to hatch in my tank, i dont think the fry would last long. theres a hungry bleeding heart waiting in the wings for anything that drops from the large amazon leaf they used. guaiac_boy, do you think the time and trouble is worth separating for possibly 30 fry? Consider that i would have to buy a couple things to provide a rearing tank. and, what was your setup? Im thinking bare 15gal, sponge filter and heater.
I may just wait till next spawn so i have time to get it together.


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

30 fry - not worth the trouble. The smallest spawn that I ever raised was about 60 or 70. Most of the time I'd end up with 140-170 or so from an original 200+ eggs. My setup was very basic. I used a 10g as a hatching tank filled with water from the spawning tank. I used an airstone about 4" away from eggs to provide circulation. Temp was kept at 82F which matched the spawing tank. My water was GH 12+ with a pH in the 7.6 range. I wasn't doing anything planted back then.

I added quite a bit of methylene blue to the water - probably too much, since it took forever to go away with WC's. This seems to help immensely to limit the spread of fungus. About the time the wigglers dropped off to the bottom I'd get a batch of baby brine started. The BBS would be ready by the time the yolk sack was used up. I used a 2 liter soda bottle upside down with an airstone and clip-on light. I'd feed 2-3 times a day and siphon debris from the bottom daily (carefully!!) & replace with clean water. After a couple of weeks I'd slowly transition to finely chopped adult frozen brine and powdered flake food. It seems that angels do well enough with anything that will fit in their mouths.

I'd grow them out in a 40 gal. I picked the biggest 50 from the hatching tank, transfered them, grew them to a body size of a nickel and sold them. I'd then grab the next biggest 50 (which were a little bigger by then) and repeat the process. They grow pretty fast given space and food. If you want to get quarter-sized bodies or bigger you'll need a pretty good sized grow-out tank. LFS's will pay more though.

Whatever you do, don't sell malformed or mishapen fish. There are always a few in every spawning. I noticed that many fin irregularities that I thought were a result of injury were actually a genetic trait that could be passed on to subsequent generations. I took great pride in the fact that my angels burried any other angels in the store for hardiness and quality of finnage. The LFS's sold them very quickly. If they get to know you as a regular supplier of quality fish they'll soon be begging for more.

A couple hundred little ones surrounding their parents in a 125 gallon planted tank is my eventual goal. I think that would look AWESOME!!


----------



## cranetech (Feb 1, 2006)

guaiac_boy said:


> A couple hundred little ones surrounding their parents in a 125 gallon planted tank is my eventual goal. I think that would look AWESOME!!


Mine too.. im not really interested in raising them to sell regularly. I think the current tank inhabitants would make it impossible for the parents to raise them in the tank though.

I bought four angels as youngsters thinking id probably get a pair sometime. My kids would probably enjoy seeing them all hatch and grow though. Ill have to figure out a way to make that happen.

Thanks for your great advice. I printed it out for future ref.


----------

