The Marble angelfish is somewhat similar to the previous, Zebra type. Starting last week they were pairing off and beginning to lay eggs. Altum Angelfish can be breed in aquarium but this is not an easy task. Fecundity traits that are desirable in angelfish: Angelfish should breed easily and produce large spawns; All Rights Reserved. To get your fish in spawning condition, you must ensure clean water and a healthy and varied diet. Just because you have a known female and male angelfish pair, it doesn’t mean they’ll breed right away. Some aquarists will place a mesh netting in the tank that allows fry to swim past the net and keep adult fish away from them. I have purchased Angels now for many, "I had just moved my Angels to a larger tank and within a week, they spawned for the first time. Try to choose a tank that is at least 20 gallons (75.7 L) and ideally 29 gallons (110 L) large. Because there is no male to fertilize the eggs, these aren’t viable and will often develop a white fungus on them. They tend to be eaten up by adult angelfish. SmartAquariumGuide.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. If you are hoping to keep your aquarium filled with these little beauties, you will need to learn how to breed your fish and care for their cute fry. Angelfish pair for life. Physical traits to look for in show quality angelfish: Behavioral traits to look for in angelfish: Fecundity traits that are desirable in angelfish: Most of these traits cannot be judged on juveniles, therefore, if you’re buying juveniles with the idea of raising them and then breeding them, you should source them from a reputable breeder. An alternative to purchasing a breeding angelfish pair is to buy 10 to 12 junior angelfish. Factors that contribute to this behavior include: Placing the tank in a quiet and undisturbed location is important to make your angelfish couple feel more relaxed. ", "This is a breeding pair. I recommend using a sponge filter such as this one from Amazon. Things You Need There are a couple of things you may want to consider getting for your Angelfish pair. Besides clean water that has been treated with antifungal substances, aeration is another important aspect of artificially hatching angelfish. Whether you are doing it for fun or to make a profit, breeding Angelfish is a very rewarding experience. Give your angels 3 to 5 minutes to feed on any food you give them. Raise the temperature of the water a few degrees, replace at least 70 percent of the water during a partial cleaning and try feeding live or freeze-dried food. Two large sponge filters can very well manage the bio-load of angelfish in a bigger tank. ", "Putting the pair in their own tank was most helpful. If this happens to you, there are a few things you can try that I will discuss further down in this article (see Why Won’t My Angelfish Breed?). If the angelfish pair is in a community tank, other fish raiding the eggs may stress them out, so they resort to eating the eggs. The frequency and number of eggs laid by a female angelfish depends on genetic factors and the level of care offered to them. Choose a dark matte color to reduce reflection, this too will make the fish more comfortable. Remove any unwanted or uneaten food immediately after feeding and take pains to ensure the water quality is high and uncontaminated. Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. The male angelfish not fertilizing the eggs is a common problem with young angelfish that are at their first spawning. Even if you get a proven angelfish pair, the simple transfer to the breeding tank can throw them off their breeding cycle and they may require a few weeks of adjustment. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. Don’t rely on sponge filters to remove particulates from the aquarium since they technically don’t remove them. If you’re feeding angelfish with frozen foods, add a little aquarium water and let the frozen food thaw out. While protecting the physical integrity of the fry in a community tank is extremely problematic, another difficulty in raising the fry in a community tank is proper feeding. The vertical stripes of silver angelfish will go jet black, and you'll notice their cheek colouration darkening as well. The rearing tank should be anywhere between 2.5 gallons to 10 gallons, depending on the number of juveniles. Angelfish eating their own eggs and fry because of stressful tank conditions; Other fish raiding the eggs or eating the fry because they mistake them for food; Angelfish becoming too territorial and aggressive. Feed your angelfish twice a day with an amount they can eat in under a minute and remove any uneaten food to avoid fouling of the water. A tank that is too large will make them feel frightened and they may even have trouble getting to enough food to keep them well fed. Does a female ever fill up with eggs and not lay them? As a rule, I don’t recommend allowing angelfish to breed in a community tank, especially if you want to take breeding seriously. My wife and I have noticed that our angels have, "I liked you telling us that the fish take long to become pairs if they haven't been bonded already and sold as a, "This is really going to help me to try and have some fun and raise Angel fish. Your email address will not be published. You may want to remove the eggs to hatch them artificially, or, if they’re in a community tank, to protect them from other fish. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 362,092 times. Sometimes, the sight of another angelfish will get them breeding. Freshly hatched brine shrimp and micro-worms are the gold standard in feeding angelfish fry, and you can even grow your own cultures at home. If a pair is taking longer to spawn, try increasing the tank's temperature by a few degrees if it's below 80 degrees F. For tips on how to set the pH level in your tank or when to pair the angels with different mates, read on! This too is something determined by genetics and care. A PVC pipe could also work too. Letting angelfish hatch the eggs in a breeding tank is not as problematic as letting them hatch the eggs in a community tank, which comes with the following challenges: You can minimize these risks by re-homing fish that might bother angelfish eggs and fry. Yes, they might eat their eggs if they are stressed or feel threatened. They can survive in a fairly wide range of temperatures, as low as 75F (24C), but do best at 80 to 85F (27 – 29C), and are most likely to breed when kept in that range. Your koi angelfish will become more vibrant, with their gold spots potentially becoming more orange. This article received 16 testimonials and 93% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. If the eggs are bad they turn white, while if they are good they will stay a brownish-gray color. Because it can be difficult to tell the difference between a female and male angelfish, you should factor in misidentified gender as a possible cause if your angelfish can’t be determined to breed no matter what you try. They will pair up and breed. Thanks a lot. Any food that hasn't been eaten after 5 minutes should be removed from the tank to promote clean water. Angelfish should breed easily and produce large spawns; Eggs should be large and should produce juveniles that are easy to raise. Even with a spawning slate, your angelfish pair may choose to lay the eggs on something else like the leaf of a plant, the filter system or the heater system. After a few weeks of feeding angelfish fry with small live foods, you can slowly transition to regular fry foods and then normal angelfish foods. From the moment of spawning, angelfish eggs go through several stages before they hatch. Your email address will not be published. If your water isn't in the ideal pH range, a de-ionization filter or reverse osmosis (R.O.) Hortworts, Camboda, and anacharis are all good options and so are tall rocks and decorations with tiny hiding spaces where fry can enter but adult fish cannot. These are usually attached to your main water supply, and can run from fairly cheap to incredibly expensive. If introducing a new kind of food to your angels, don't feed them at all for one or two days. Angelfish babies thrive on live cultured foods that will provide them the nutritional boost to develop and grow into healthy adults. Females tend to hold Ventrals closer to body, while males hold ventrals more erect. On the off chance that you won’t be the lucky owner of a cooperative pair, I am confident that the information in this angelfish breeding guide will help you overcome most of the hurdles you may come across when attempting to breed this species. In this stage, they’re known as wigglers. To keep toxin levels in check, you must invest in a quality bio-filter and perform partial water changes. To provide optimal aeration for the angelfish eggs, place an air stone in the hatching recipient, so that air bubbles can deliver enough oxygen to the eggs. When they are preparing to spawn, you will notice them pairing up, defending their territory, and scaring away other fish. The best angelfish tank mates are peaceful fish. 80-82 degrees is best, they hatch quicker in warmer temperatures (but do not go over 82 degrees). Do at least 50% water change each week either as part of regular cleaning activity. They may need a few spawning cycles until their parenting skill develop. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. In the hobby, they may be called silver or even wild angelfish. Female angelfish are capable of laying a limited number of eggs in their lifetimes. Some strains, however, will mature much later. Required fields are marked *. Warmer water is arguably better for angels' immune systems, whereas colder water increases their lifespan. The eggs are laid usually on a flat surface or a leaf & even on the glass of the aquarium. It may take a while for them to breed, you may need to make certain adjustments and tweak tank conditions until you manage to get things just right for them to breed. Higher temperatures in the tank are correlated with an increase of the rate at which eggs are laid. I just discovered a few minutes ago that two of my angels are busy laying, "Thank you for this study review on a breeding pair of angel fish. Once you have a breeding tank set up, the second thing you must pay attention to is ensuring water conditions suitable for breeding. However, if eggs remain unfertilized or parents don’t do their job of tending to the eggs, the eggs will develop an opaque white fungus and lose their viability. They do however not pair up for life. Angelfish males ready to fight (trade breed of wild Pterophyllum scalare in koi coloration) Angelfish establish territories, and they fight to defend the space in the aquarium they’ve chosen as theirs. Higher temperatures can cause bacterial growth within the tank, reduce oxygen, and shorten the lifespan of the fish. It’s important to offer them enough space as they mature to avoid developmental problems like chopped dorsal fins and thin, stunted bodies. Low temperatures in the tank will cut their appetite, but several angelfish diseases will also result in a loss of appetite. Because angelfish reach breeding maturity at about 6 or 7 months of age, there’s no way you can examine the breeding tubes of juvenile fish. Angelfish need to feel secure to do well and to breed freely. Use a 9" breeding cone for their eggs. It will also allow for easy removal to a hatching tank. No fish should. If an angelfish pair is preparing for spawning, you’ll see them sticking together and scaring away other fish in preparation of the spawning site, which they will carefully clean together before the female lays her eggs. Generally, angelfish are relatively easy to breed if you ensure that all necessary conditions are met, and you have a cooperative breeding pair. Setting the Right Conditions for Breeding, {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/7\/7b\/Breed-Angelfish-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Breed-Angelfish-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/7\/7b\/Breed-Angelfish-Step-1.jpg\/aid1397916-v4-728px-Breed-Angelfish-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"