| Breeding |
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| Domestic angelfish have been bred all over the world in a wide variety of water parameters. They have been successfully bred in soft water to hard water, in acid water to alkaline. Other than in the very extremes in water parameters you shouldn't have to worry about changing the pH or water hardness. If you provide your angels with frequent water changes you should be able to be relatively successfull in breeding and raising a healthy angelfish. The easiest way to get a breeding pair is to purchase 6 to 10 young angels and raise them. Give them plenty of room to grow along with regular water changes and you should be rewarded with a breeding pair in a few months. I prefer 10 quarter size angels in a 55-gal tank being fed twice a day with high quality food with twice a week water changes. The temperature should be 82'. As your angels grow you will notice that they will try to establish a territory in your tank and will chase others out of their area. At times they may become very aggressive toward each other and engage in lip locking and fin nipping. It is a good idea to provide hideing places where they can take shelter. When you see two angelfish defending an area of a tank to themselves by chasing all intruders away a pair bond is forming. When these two angels start cleaning a plant leaf or slate with their mouths, spawning is usually close by. This is a good time to remove them to a breeding tank. Before you get your net out to catch the pair, make sure you can identify both of them through some feature. This is especially important if you have all similar sized fish of the same type. Sometimes I ask Sue to keep an eye on them while I catch one at a time and transfer it to the breeding tank. You would hate to catch the wrong fish. After they have been put in a breeding tank by themselves it is usually only a matter of a few days to a week before the actual spawning takes place. If they start cleaning the slate after they become familiar with their new home you at least know you caught the right pair. Spawning is immenent when the papillia drops on both fish. The papillia is located on the bottom of the fish near the anal fin. The papillia on the male will be more V shaped and smaller. The female's will be more U shaped and larger. Spawning usually takes place that day or the next. There have been times where the papillia has dropped and no spawning occurs for days especially with young pairs. A good 50% water change usually does the trick. The actual spawning act starts when the pair starts makeing passes up the slate. Sometimes they make several practice runs. The female then touches her papillia on the slate and deposits eggs in a line from bottom to top between 4 and 6 inches long. The male soon follows fertilizing the eggs in the same bottom to top motion. The actual time spent spawning varies somewhat depending on the pair. Usually between an hour or two. During the spawning you will notice that from time to time they stop and start fanning the eggs with their fins. This is done to keep dirt and fungus from forming on the eggs. The female usually does most of the fanning. Sometimes they take turns. Spawning is complete when it's all fanning and the passes stop. Sometimes angelfish will eat their eggs. This is especially true of young inexperienced pairs. Don't worry because most of them eventually get it right. At least they usually don't eat them till the next day. This usually gives you enough time to hatch them away from the parents. There are many theories why so many domestic angelfish eat their eggs. One is that they eat them because the eggs are perhaps deformed. Another is that they eat them because they feel threatened by either other fish or their masters. Still another is that because most angelfish have been raised away from their parents they never learned to raise their young. Another is that parent raising skills have just been bred out of our domestics and the only way to bring it back is to out breed to wilds. There is probably a little truth to all of the theories. Many purists say that we should never artificially hatch eggs. That the only way to bring back natural parent raising instincts is to only breed and raise angels that were parent raised. That this trait is passed from one generation to the next. This will never happen as long as angelfish continue to be a good seller at pet stores. Once angelfish have spawned they seem to get on a cycle of spawning every 10 to 14 days. The earliest between spawns for me has been 5 days and the longest has been a year. Young pairs tend to average every 10 to 14 days for anywhere from 6 months to a year. Most of us couldn't possibly raise 200 to 400 fry every 2 weeks. I usually pull a couple of spawns and then let them try to parent raise. If this doesn't happen the pair either gets seperated into singles tanks or switched with other known males and females in an effort to produce better angelfish. Most of these mix and match pairs are usually successfull. By putting the best male with the best female the chances of producing a superior fish is more likely. This should be everyones goal. All it takes to produce a lot of angelfish is a lot of tanks. It is much harder to produce a good quality angelfish with no genetic or enviormental deffects. After you get more involved with angels you will see that quality is much more important than quantity. |
| Selecting Breeders |
| Pre Spawning Behavior |
| Spawning |
| Egg Eaters |
| The Spawning Cycle |