Angelfish are breeding!!

[Xtasia]

My angelfish are breeding and it appears that there are 2 sets of pairs...

I read that it was diffcult to tell the male and female apart, but that it couldbe done by looking at the exposed nipple like genitals while they breed... to me, they look exactly the same (but I'd like to be optimistic and believe it is my niavete and not that my fish are lesbians)... Is there any sort of behavior, or fish shape I could use to differentiate sex?

Also, how close should the air bubbles from the air stone be to the eggs if you grow the eggs away from the parents?

More questions later I'm sure..

Thanks for any answers

[Marnie]

Very exciting

You can definitely tell them apart. The male's is thinner and longer and the female's looks more blunt. As for appearance sometimes the males head has a pronounced hump on forehead area.

The airstone can run right up against the eggs if its not too strong. I always had them about 1" away though.

You'll have better success with the eggs if you put a few drops of meth-blue to help keep fungus away. What size container do you have the eggs in??

You'll have wigglers in 7 days so you'll need to hatch brineshrimp to have ready.

I hope this helps, worked for me....I bred angelfish for past 3 years and just sold my hatchery this past year. [/b]

[Xtasia]

I have the parents in a 20g tank away from the 33g community tank. After they breed, I was going to move the parents back to the 33g and move the eggs into the 1g pickle jar until they were older, then put them into the 20g after...

Some people adviced using the 1g pickle jar but this confuses me.. where can I buy 1g heater?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

My dad & I always used bare-bottom tanks & left the eggs in there because they are very delicate & any disturbance, such as temp. change, could cause them to go bad & get fungus. We left the parents in there for the first 2-3 weeks & after a couple of batches, the adults actually became pretty good parents. If the parents are left with the eggs, they'll eat any unfertilized eggs that discolour. If you take them out, are you going to remove those bad eggs because they will develop fungus & it'll spread to other eggs. (Methylene blue does help with this problem though). Besides, it's cool watching the parents guard their fry. The downside of course was sometimes having them eat their fry

Good luck & have fun. Remember, if you lose the first few batches, don't stress out over it. Mine would breed every few weeks. Ended up with 5 tanks just for breeding angels & rearing fry. If you're successful, it'll seem like they take forever to reach saleable size but it'll also feel very rewarding.

Anthony

[Xtasia]

They seemed to be doing a good job the first 24 hours.. but I think, when I came home and started moving around the house and turning the house lights on and off, it stressed them out and made them eat the eggs <shrugs>

Live and learn.

I'm just going to try my hand at rearing one batch.. as it stands, I have 6 tanks going int he living room, and I get really embarassed at what people have to say when they first come in...

><

[Ryan]

Your pair may need practice. Like Discus and other cichlids it could take them 6 or 7 times to get it right just be patient. When i had my pairs i could tell the males apart from looks they looked bigger and rougher than the small females. Also the female will become fat with eggs.

[Xtasia]

duh heavy with eggs.. ok so I know for sure one was female... now to see if the other was...

thanks.

[trilinearmipmap]

I have raised a few batches, here is my experience.

First microworms are a much easier food source than baby brine shrimp. Just easier to keep a microworm culture going.

Second I found a night light overnight kept the parents from eating the eggs/fry.

Good luck.

[Marnie]

Just put the jar inside of your 20g heated tank. You may have to find somthing raise it up a bit. Clip your airline to the side of the jar and away ya go. You can easily siphon water with airhose to make small waterchanges in P. Jar.

I found brine shrimp easiet if you hatch a large batch and then freeze it in an ice cube tray, just melt a cube as needed.

[Fish Breath]

Once you have a proven pair of Angels they will spawn aprox every 2 weeks. Sometimes two females will spawn together. So that is a possibility too.

What did they deposite thier eggs on ( ei leaf rock filter tube ect.)
Angels will eat their spawn if spooked to much or stressed to much. Some parents will always just eat them too. If you want the parents to raise them then there are a few things you can try if they keep eating the eggs .
here a link to Angels plus go to it then click on the link in the all about Angels section then the breeding Angels link There is lots of info there it is about half way down on the left hand side of the screen
http://www.angelsplus.com/

Good Luck