Angel's breeding..

[kansaschick08]

Hey I just bought some angel fish today...i was wondering how you tell if it is a male or female?? then.....how do you breed them?

 

[Fluff]

Well, it's difficult to tell until they are ready to spawn. Then the tips of their spawning tubes (genital papillae) are visible. In the male the spawning tube is small and thin with a slight curve. The female's is thicker and not curved and slightly indented at the tip. They will start to show this about a week prior to spawning.

 

[kansaschick08]

do you by anychance....have a picture? ::questioning face:: i don't under stand the description...

 

[Fluff]

Hmmm. I might. I'll be back with something.

 

[Fluff]

Well, I had to restore my computer so my pics are gone. I do have a pic of a pair of angels in my gallery. The one on the right is a female.
You can see the papillae on her quite clear. The male would be the same only thinner and pointier. If that makes sense.

 

[kansaschick08]

lemme go check it out..

 

[kansaschick08]

uhmm its kinda...hard to see..so i dont see it..

 

[docrak]

uhmm its kinda...hard to see..so i dont see it..

The male has a similar protrusion, but is significantly thinner. Only visable when breeding.

 

[Fluff]

LOL Wow, thanks for blowing that up docrak! Shame the male isnt' as obvious in the pic.

 

[TomK2]

Ahh, but you only see this protrusion when they are about to breed? Therefore, if you see two angels with this, one is male, one is female, doesn't matter which is which if you put them both in a breeding tank, since they are announcing that they are ready?

 

[Fluff]

Well, yes and no. The male papillae is not as large. And, it's not uncommon to see more than one showing. I have a group of angels and sometimes, several females will show to only one male, or visa versa. You just have to watch to see who pairs up. They will go off on their own, then you remove them. The papillae shows when they are ready to spawn so yeah, it's not always visible. But, it is visible for days before spawning takes place so, it gives you time to see who is together and to get them moved. Two will pair off and you may start to see some cleaning of an egg laying sight. Mine laid on plant leaves. I honestly can't say if you throw just any male in with a female if they will accept each other or not. I let mine pair up by themselves. I don't know if it can be forced. I imagine if you move two that you know are male and female, they eventually will pair up, but I don't know that as fact. I can only tell you what my experience has been.

 

[anna8297]

Usually any two angels will pair up. The problem with this is, just like our relationships, some work out and some don't. Sometimes angels can be VERY agressive when mating, even to the point of taking out an eye, or seriously damaging fins. My experience has been that letting them pair off by themselves usually results in less agressive pairs and larger spawns. www.angelfish.net has a great forum dedicated to breeding angels. They have some excellent posts and all the users are just as friendly as they are here! HTH

 

[kansaschick08]

thank you for your advice, but they recently passed away...yesterday morning.

 

[anna8297]

Don't give up. Angels are beautiful and fun to keep. We bought 12 before we had a group of 6 survive. Keep trying. Buy one or two from the same source and qt them by themselves for at least a week. Then buy one or two more from a different source. Check out ww.angelfish.net . They have great information. HTH

 

[Peeley]

if you see two angels with this they may both be females, a "lesbian pair." i have two female angels that are constantly "spawning" infertile eggs.