Are my Angels ready to breed?

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Parrotthead

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Nov 30, 2002
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Portland, Or.
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Two months ago, I bought a Pair of large silver angels at a local fish shop, after watching them for a couple of weeks. I noticed that they had paired off and were staying closly togeather. I placed them in a 72 gal. plant tank with an assortment of other community fish. (Groamies,gold barbs, cardinal tettras, rainbows, siamease algea eaters, a big pleco, and a few fiddler crabs.) In the past few weeks they have been "attacking each other". The female has turned sort of yellow on the top of it's head. I have seen them bite at each others mouths, locking on to each other sometimes. She is picking at a flat piece of driftwood, possibly cleaning it. I have never had a breeding pair a Angels before and need information on what to do and how to care for them if they do lay eggs. l:cool:
 
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wetmanNY

AC Members
clear the decks!

Sounds like things are warming up. The jaw-locking is a strength test, and if one has moved on to the cleaning-the-site stage, it looks like the pair have passed their test.

You need to get all the other fishes out of there, if you possibly can. A mating pair of Angels is too interesting to miss. Can you board them with a friend? Do you have a spare tank you can set up?

You want to act now, because as they get deeper into their ritual, the Angels will get more easily spooked.
 

Archer

happy new year!
May 18, 2002
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Yes, it sounds like your angels are close to breeding. A sure sign is when the breeding tube of the female is all getting swollen, due to all the eggs that are about to come out.

You can keep the angels to themselves in the tank, as wetmanNY mentioned. Or, if you decide to keep them where they are, then it may still work out OK. They will usually lay the eggs on a broad leaf (such as Amazon sword plant), on a rock/driftwood, or on the side of the glass. At this time, they will be very aggressive towards the other fishes as they are protecting their eggs.

After 1 day, it's safe to say that the eggs are fertilized. If the eggs are laid on a small rock/driftwood, or plant leaf, then you can pickup that rock/driftwood/plant and transfer it to another tank. If the eggs are laid on the side of the glass, you can use a air hose to siphon each egg out carefully into a container to put into the other tank. The eggs usually hatch after 3 days, and start swimming after 1 week. More babies will survive if fed with newly hatched brine shrimps.

The parents tend to eat their eggs on their first few tries, but get better later on. They can lay eggs every 2 weeks or so. Feeding them live brine shrimps and doing frequent water changes tend to stimulate them more.
 
T

TnCgal

Guest
Hi, Parrotthead !

Welcome to AquariaCentral, home of the most egg-laying Angels in the whole wide world. :)

I'm going to move this thread over to the General FW forum since this is not directly a beginner's question ! :)
 
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