Angel fish pairing off - how do you tell?

[Punkymom]

I was wondering if there's any way to tell if your angel fish have paired off if they've never spawned in the tank before. Mine never fight and actually prefer to hide together if something startles them. Are they just great buds, or is there a chance they're hitched? TIA!

 

[bs6749]

They may liplock with one another and harass each other showing their desire to mate. They will also clean a spot with their mouths prior to laying eggs there. You may also see them making "dry runs" on the spawning site which is basically them "practicing" or part of the premating ritual. If you look at each angel head on you should notice that the male will have a thin profile and the female will have a noticeable bulge if she is full of eggs and if you haven't just fed them. Males often also develop a tell tale "bump" in the head that is common among cichlids.

 

[Punkymom]

Yeah, I don't think they'll breed in my tank. I just wanted to know if they're going to continue getting along like they have been.

 

[mitcore]

Angels can be breed in community tanks,
the only problem with this is that the fry get eaten by the other fish,
once the spawn or pair you could move them to a tank on thier own, angels are one of the easist fish to breed
they do all the work

 

[Punkymom]

I'm not sure if they are or not anymore...My marble angel is lunging (only way I know to describe) at my other angel. Bad sign? I've started considering getting a 29 gal to put one of them in and having another community. The marble is mine and I'm not parting with him. The other (white with a gold crown) is my 6.5 y/o daughter's fish and getting rid of that one is out of the ? also. The white one is showing no signs of aggression. He/she's got some tearing in the tail fin. Possibly from the other angel. Marble has near perfect fins.

 

[joy13]

I see another tank in your future.

 

[Punkymom]

Yeah...I think so, too. All I need is a tank with hood and the stand. I've got an extra filter running on the 26 and an extra heater and all that. Starts checking craigs list...

 

[Punkymom]

Ok so I'm amazed! My gurl decided that it would be ok for me to take her angel to a fish store and get a different fish (I'm thinking kribs are in my near future) to be "hers". So now I'm feeling better about this. I really don't want to have to spend any more money than I need to. I still need to buy a CO2 indicator thing and all that other stuff that goes with it (kh mix and soforth) and those things for my diy CO2 reactor. Fun times! So tomorrow I'll call my fav lfs and ask them if they'll take Goldie. I really thought she was rather drab anyway...although she grew on me. I'm happy that I'll only have 1 tank to worry about. This is not a good time in my life to have a whole bunch of tanks to worry about.