angelfish experts please

kelly82

AC Members
Jun 1, 2007
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Lincolnshire, UK
ok so i have 10 angels in my tank, ranging in size from approx 1" without fins to around 3" without fins. some seem to be growing much faster than others. none have paired up yet, i know theres a very good chance il get a couple of pairs from this bunch. my question is, i dont want them to breed as im not interested in rearing the fry etc, so if i do end up with pairs, whats best to do? im thinking for each pair that forms, remove either the female or the male and rehoming one. my way of thinking is that having an all male tank would be best as the females lay and get aggressive whether they have a male around anyway.

when they have established themselves properly and i know who is staying and who is going, depending on how many i end up with, i am going to give the bosemani rainbow male a few friends. at what kind of size should i be expecting the pairing off? also, when they do pair off how do i know which is female and which is male?

thanks for reading all this :1zhelp:
 
bump
 
im not 100% sure, but i believe the males are larger, and have more brightly colored fins. My male (i believe) is bigger, has more color, and all that.
 
IMO--Just let them do their thing. Not all the eggs will hatch, and not all the fry will survive.
 
With 10 you will get a pair or two, maybe more. If you want to limit the aggression, remove the eggs after they spawn and they will settle down very quickly. Having an all male or all female tank may limit some aggression, it may not. Males and females can be aggressive - I have a black standard fin female that is wicked - she has killed several bn plecos and beat the crap out of her first mate - I had to remove him. With that many angels you will have pairs - removing the eggs after spawning is the best way to settle the pair down. In a 180 gallon, planted tank there is plenty of room so the pair will stake out a small area and chase the others away - they stay close to their chosen spot so the area of aggression is limited and usually goes away after the spawn and the eggs are gone.

HTH,
 
:cool: thanks for the replies everyone. i will just let them do their thing and see how it all pans out then. i have added a few almost upright pieces of slate in parts of the tank so hopefully they will just pick one and stick with it. so far no pairing, and everyone gets along great, but they arent mature yet so we shall see. thank you.
 
You don't have to worry about rearing fry. The parents will defend their young to the death right up until they eat them to make room for the next batch. As long as you can deal with the increased aggression from the parents it's no problem.
 
You don't have to worry about rearing fry. The parents will defend their young to the death right up until they eat them to make room for the next batch. As long as you can deal with the increased aggression from the parents it's no problem.

:laugh: sorry but the defending them to the death then eating them made me laugh. i will see who pairs up where and may end up rehoming any that really get picked on.
 
It's amazing how hormones can flip a switch and cause such a radical change in behaviour isn't it? You should meet my wife....... jk!
 
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