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Eight week old zebra angel juvenile I have kept fish for a hobby for many years and angelfish of course have always been my favorite fish. I have a well planted 20 gallon tank with an assortment of fish. I purchased two small zebra angelfish almost two years ago. They grew into adults, and one day I noticed these amber colored eggs on the filter intake tube, and the angels were taking turns fanning the eggs. Within a couple of days the eggs began to move, wiggle and the parents moved the eggs to another spot. In the meantime they were taking turns chasing the other fish away from their eggs. The next day there were over 200 moving eggs on a plastic plant attached to the glass with a suction cup. The day after there were only half left and the third day they were all gone. I then looked up everything I could about raising angel fry. I had another 10 gallon tank for the livebearer fishes babies. I put the breeding pair into that tank, and put in a breeding slate. A piece of slate I put into the tank up against the tank wall.
(This slate is actually in the community tank as the angel near it is the baby from my breeding pair, that is now laying her own eggs. There is no male to fertilize the eggs, so they will not hatch. )The female lays her eggs in rows , as she goes up and down the slate laying anywhere upto a thousand eggs. The male follows right behind her fertilizing the eggs. They both take turns fanning the eggs, as they need alot of air. After about 48 hours , if the temperature is kept at about 82 to 84degrees the eggs will hatch, and you can see tiny tails wiggling from the eggs. The wrigglers are stuck to the slate by some sticky material attached to their heads. They all stick together. When the eggs fell off the slate the parents would catch them in their mouth and place them back. On day five or six, the fry will be free swimming, and the parents will keep them on the plants at night.They would round up the freeswimmers by catching them in their mouth. At night the fry would stick together It is important to have a bare bottom tank, as the eggs , and the fry will die from bacteria if they fall to the bottom of the tank. Once the fry are free swimming, they will need frequent water changes. I kept the parents with the fry, and I had about 200 of them. Every day some died, even with the water changes. My first spawn that lived had 32 survivors. As the parents started eating the fattest ones. At about 7 days free swimming I removed the male. I took the female from the fry at two weeks. Since I lost half of the 64 living fry I had left. She had eaten them during the night.
Once the fry are free swimming you need to hatch baby brine shrimp eggs to feed the fry. It is the preferred food. The brine shrimp live about 4 hours in freshwater, so you have to do water changes after each meal. After about 7 days you can see the dorsal and ventral fins form. I have kept daily camcorder movies of their development but can't get the pictures from my camcorder yet. They grow quite rapidly. I sold my first batch of juveniles to my local fish store when they were about quarter body size. The babies from the first succesful spawn are now 10 months old and laying eggs. I kept two of the babies. Since the first batch I put the parents in a 20 gallon tank for spawning and kept the small fry in a ten gallon. Once they were big enough I moved the parents into the community tank, and the babies in the 20 gallon. If I had more survivors I would need more tanks for growout tanks for all those babies. Water changes have to continue daily. When the fry were first free swimming I did a third , water changes three times a day. As they got older I lessened it to once a day. Water changes are important (as they are sensitive to ammonia,) if you want them to survive. I really enjoyed watching them grow. I just sold my last batch to my local fish store, and I also sold the breeding pair. They told me I did a great job, since my angels were so big at 8 weeks, and they were so beautiful. I don't have enough tanks and don't want to get any more. I still have a large superveil black marble, two large marble blusher angels, one zebra female, and three of the babies from the last batch. I need a break, from water changes, and hatching brine shrimp. Some people just end up getting more and more tanks, they just fall in love with raising angels. I am going to get three more juveniles , but I want to get some gold pearlscale, to see if I get another breeding pair. I want to try to get a different type of angel. Since both of the parents were zebra, I ended up with all zebra angels. So far my other adults have shown no sign of breeding activity. As far as sexing angels go , the only way to tell what sex they are is if they start laying eggs. You can tell by the tubes that show under the body , the males is different from the female. Below I have links to sites, where you can see pictures of spawing angelfish and the fry development. The Angelfish Forum, was a frequent place for me to visit, since I got alot of help from the people there. Beginners can get help there for anything they need to know about raising angelfish.
Links to Angelfish sites. Annie
and Jamie's Fish Place Angel Fish Plus
, Aqua World You can find information for hatching brine shrimp by following these links.
"Angelfish are the heavenly angels of the underwater world"
Graphics by Angells Designz made with angelfish tube.
"By the Sea Midi "copyrighted Bruce De Boer |
