Breeding Angelfish
Angelfish egg laying and fertilization
The Angelfish eggs will be deposited on the spawning slate and placed in very neat and evenly spaced lines. If she doesn’t like the spawning slate, she will deposit the eggs somewhere else in the aquarium. The male Angelfish will fertilize the eggs by following close behind the female and touching all the eggs with his papilla. If you keep only female Angelfish, one of the females might actually resume a male behaviour and follow the egg-laying female and touch the eggs. Those eggs will naturally remain unfertilized and become white within a few days.
Angelfish egg and fry care
Several methods are used by Angelfish breeders to protect eggs and fry from hungry adult fish. Some remove all fish except the breeding pair from the aquarium, while other breeders choose to remove the breeding pair instead and place them in a special breeding aquarium. Some remove less dominant males until only the most dominant male is left with the females in the aquarium. This method also involves removing all non-gravid females from the aquarium.
All adult Angelfish pose a treat to the eggs, and many breeders will therefore place the eggs in their own tank as soon as the eggs have been fertilized. The easiest way is to put a special spawning slate in the aquarium before the spawning takes place. The parent fish will deposit the egg on the spawning slate, and the spawning slate can be easily moved afterwards. A clay pot, poly pipe or a piece of smooth surfaced tile will all work as spawning slates. The eggs will survive a brief moment out of the water when you lift them from one aquarium to the other, but try to make the move as fast as possible.
If you do not wish to keep all your fry, you can let the eggs stay in the aquarium with the adult fish. If you provide your fry with suitable hiding places, such as heavily planted areas, at least a few of them will reach adulthood. Be aware of strong filtration, since small fry can be sucked into filter systems.
If your Angelfish pair has never spawned before, it is usually a good idea to let them spawn once or twice in their normal aquarium “on their own” without your meddling. If you move them to a breeding aquarium during their first spawning they might be confused and stop the spawning process. It is normal for the parents to eat the eggs from their first spawning, and if this happens the female will usually deposit eggs again after just a few weeks.
Newly deposited Scalare eggs are transparent or semi-transparent, with a pale yellow colouration. If the eggs are not fertilized, they will start turning white after approximately 24 hours. If they have not been eaten by other inhabitants of the aquarium, unfertilized Scalare eggs will be attacked by fungus and start looking very fuzzy after roughly 48 hours. 48 hours after being deposited, fertilized eggs on the other hand will begin showing wiggling fry tails. On day three, tadpole shapes with large yolk sacks will be visible. The tadpoles will still be attached to the breeding slate. If the parent Angelfish are still in the same aquarium as the egg, the parents will now start to move the small fry around. On the fourth day you will be able to see tiny eyes on the fry and on the fifth day the yolks will start shrinking. Very soon the first fry will be free swimming. During day seven the fry will usually start getting hungry since their energy from the yolk have been consumed.
Suitable tank for Angelfish fry
If you decide to raise the Angelfish eggs and fry in a special aquarium, a 5-10 gallon (19-38 litres) tank will be suitable, but even a tank no larger than 2 gallons will usually work. You do not need to cover the egg and fry aquarium. If you allow the parent Scalare to accompany their offspring in the aquarium, the parents will keep the eggs clean and protect them from mould. If the eggs are kept without the parents, you must use fungicide to prevent fungus attacks. Make sure that the water temperature in the raising tank is the same as in the parent's old aquarium. An air stone in the raising aquarium will make it easier to maintain high oxygen levels. Keep the water quality good by frequently removing any dead fry and left over food. Regular water changes are also a must. Typically, a lot of the Scalare fry will die. You might have to remove dead fry from the aquarium three times a day or more. During the first three weeks, water changes can be necessary as often as once a day.
Feeding Angelfish fry
You can start feeding your Angelfish fry around 7 days after the eggs were deposited. Angelfish fry can survive 12 hours without food, but should ideally be fed four or five times a day. Newly hatched Brine Shrimp (Artemia nauplii) are a good first food for Angelfish fry. If the fry is too small to consume the Brine Shrimp, you can buy the fry special fry food from a pet shop or fish store. The survival rate for Angelfish fry is usually very much lover when the fry is fed dead food instead of live food (such as live Brine Shrimp). When the fry are a few weeks old it is time to make them grow accustomed to flake foods. Turn the flake food into a powder or press it through a fine screen before feeding it to the fry.
