breeding angels

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livefishguy124

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Feb 11, 2015
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so, i have been breeding mollies for a year now and have been very successful doing so. and now i would like to breed angels. i got 2 angels a while ago and now they are almost adults but the male doesn't like the female so i don't think it will work out. so i am going to get 1 dozen blue pearl scale zebra angels. and put them in my 29 gallon community for a little while and then there own 30 gallon tank to let them pair up. then i want to get a 20 gallon to breed them in.
so will a 20 gallon be enough?
water parameters?
food (live foods not just brine shrimp)
care for babies?
any other knowledge of breeding angels
 
so, i have been breeding mollies for a year now and have been very successful doing so. and now i would like to breed angels. i got 2 angels a while ago and now they are almost adults but the male doesn't like the female so i don't think it will work out. so i am going to get 1 dozen blue pearl scale zebra angels. and put them in my 29 gallon community for a little while and then there own 30 gallon tank to let them pair up. then i want to get a 20 gallon to breed them in.
so will a 20 gallon be enough?
water parameters?
food (live foods not just brine shrimp)
care for babies?
any other knowledge of breeding angels

You would be best to put that doz fish in a much larger tank, say 4' long at least, as when they do start pairing off, there will be a lot of fighting and losses in a smaller tank unless you can pull the pairs as they are forming and put them in their own tanks.
As for breeding and the rest of your questions, it would do you much good to read an old thread in this breeding forum titled "Wigglers at last!!!". It was an ongoing discussion all about breeding and raising Angelfish by both professional and hobbyist breeders. Pretty much everything you need to know was discussed in that thread. It's long, but that's because there is a lot of info to know so well worth the read. Breeding Angels is nothing like breeding Mollies so you should know what you are getting in to before you start. ;) Here's a hint: How do you know you have a male & female from the first 2 fish you mentioned? (y)

Hope this helps (y)
 
well the male has the big bump and his vent is more male like, while the females stomach is rounder and her vent is different.
and the male's body is more rounded
 
and how many angels would you recommend in a 30 gallon? i want 1 pair at least. i do know its much different and came in knowing so. i wanted to try out a challenge.
 
As in how many pairs? 1 and no more. I think Andy does a pair in a 20 H


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well the male has the big bump and his vent is more male like, while the females stomach is rounder and her vent is different.
and the male's body is more rounded
While these attributes are usually good gender indicators, I have seen fish with opposite gender characteristics so only the actual tubes themselves are the best indicators. Just a little FYI ;) ( That's also in the "wigglers" thread. )

and how many angels would you recommend in a 30 gallon? i want 1 pair at least. i do know its much different and came in knowing so. i wanted to try out a challenge.
When you are dealing with breeding pairs, unless you are dealing with larger and longer tanks, it's best to keep each pair by themselves. They will get very protective of their mates and a lot of turmoil can go on in smaller tanks with multiple pairs.
As in how many pairs? 1 and no more. I think Andy does a pair in a 20 H
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Actually, I do 1 pair in 10 gal tanks. GASP!!!!! :eek: No judging please, I know what I am doing. ;) I do not parent raise my fry so the need for larger tanks isn't there for me. If you want to parent raise, 1 pair to a 30 long is about the minimum as once the fish really get going, the spawns can be quite large and too much for smaller tanks. Long tanks let the fish spread out and that becomes as important if not more important than gallonage. (y)
 
thanks for the advice, so i want to get some young angles and raise them and let them pair off and put them in a breeding tank how many do you recommend i tried getting 2 angels (one zebra (supposed male) and one black marble(supposed female))
 
thanks for the advice, so i want to get some young angles and raise them and let them pair off and put them in a breeding tank how many do you recommend i tried getting 2 angels (one zebra (supposed male) and one black marble(supposed female))

It has always been a common practice to put 6 or more smaller Angels in a tank and let them grow and pair off naturally. I try to get "Young Breeder" sized fish so I don;t have to wait so long. When I am looking for fish for a display tank, I use small-medium size but for intentional breeders, the larger the better. Young breeders will probably be about 1/2 dollar in body size making them about 6-8 months old. This is when they start becoming sexually mature. Obviously, the larger the fish, the less you can put in a 30 gal tank.
The issues you may be having with the 2 larger fish is that they were forced together. This does not mean they won;t ever pair up. I have a pair of fish now that I forced and when I first put the female into the male's tank, he beat her up. That lasted for a day. :lol: She kicked his butt the next day and continued to do so even when she decided to spawn. He just ate the eggs and she just beat him into a corner. I put some decorations in the tank to separate them for a few days and once I removed them, they both calmed down. Then she spawned again and he started eating them again only to stop after a few lines and he started fertilizing the eggs instead. I pulled the spawn and now have their fry. So it's all about understanding the fish. I took a supposed female, who kept being hassled by every male I put her with, and decided to try her with a larger male that had himself been beaten by a female. They were fine together for a few weeks but then, when he was ready to spawn and she apparently wasn't, even he started beating on "her". So I am having serious doubts as to her gender even tho she looks like a female. My plan for her is to put her into a community tank of adult Angels and let her pick her own mate as I am not having much success at it. And they call me " The angelfish Love Dr." :ROFLMAO: So you see, it's a little bit science, a little bit knowledge and a little bit luck. I just try to reduce my need for the luck. :brows: Having more fish for your fish to choose from reduces the need for luck. (y)
 
It has always been a common practice to put 6 or more smaller Angels in a tank and let them grow and pair off naturally. I try to get "Young Breeder" sized fish so I don;t have to wait so long. When I am looking for fish for a display tank, I use small-medium size but for intentional breeders, the larger the better. Young breeders will probably be about 1/2 dollar in body size making them about 6-8 months old. This is when they start becoming sexually mature. Obviously, the larger the fish, the less you can put in a 30 gal tank.
The issues you may be having with the 2 larger fish is that they were forced together. This does not mean they won;t ever pair up. I have a pair of fish now that I forced and when I first put the female into the male's tank, he beat her up. That lasted for a day. :lol: She kicked his butt the next day and continued to do so even when she decided to spawn. He just ate the eggs and she just beat him into a corner. I put some decorations in the tank to separate them for a few days and once I removed them, they both calmed down. Then she spawned again and he started eating them again only to stop after a few lines and he started fertilizing the eggs instead. I pulled the spawn and now have their fry. So it's all about understanding the fish. I took a supposed female, who kept being hassled by every male I put her with, and decided to try her with a larger male that had himself been beaten by a female. They were fine together for a few weeks but then, when he was ready to spawn and she apparently wasn't, even he started beating on "her". So I am having serious doubts as to her gender even tho she looks like a female. My plan for her is to put her into a community tank of adult Angels and let her pick her own mate as I am not having much success at it. And they call me " The angelfish Love Dr." :ROFLMAO: So you see, it's a little bit science, a little bit knowledge and a little bit luck. I just try to reduce my need for the luck. :brows: Having more fish for your fish to choose from reduces the need for luck. (y)
so what do you think i should do try and breed the 2 angels (ill post some photos and a video of them) in a seperat 30 gallon, get 6 angels let them pair up in there own 30 gallon and breed them in a 20, or wait till my 2 zebra angels are older ( curently 1/2 dollar size)?
 
so what do you think i should do try and breed the 2 angels (ill post some photos and a video of them) in a seperat 30 gallon, get 6 angels let them pair up in there own 30 gallon and breed them in a 20, or wait till my 2 zebra angels are older ( curently 1/2 dollar size)?

Any or all of the above. (y)
 
You don't. At some point they will develop them. Until then, you just have to wait, study their behavior with other fish and be prepared. Unfortunately, this is the nature of this fish. Unlike many other S. American Cichlids, there are no clear signs anymore or color differences between sexes. This is why most people need to raise a school and let them pick out their mates.
In addition, since we are no longer dealing with wild fish which do show differences in physical appearance, no one can catagoricly say "This is a male or This is a female" unless they have seen "tube". Case in point was the female I saw in a display tank that had a hump on her head and the right "male" fin angle. It even fooled me. :blink:
 
so here are my 2 angelfish what gender do you think they are the video is like
1 1/2 mins
 

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Hard to tell. The zebra looks like a female in one pic and a male in the other. The marble is not in a position for me to sex. No video at the moment for me to see. :(
 
i can try to get more pictures if needed, its hard to photo graph te female sense shes always moving around.
 
Based on the vid, I'd agree with the genders of the 2 fish. If you really want to breed them however, your setup is not really condusive for them to breed. Too many other fish and nothing large and flat or at an angle for them to spawn on.
I'd try to put them alone in a tank with a slate/ spawning site and some decor if the tank is in a high traffic area. (y)
 
i'm getting a 29 gallon free in early June, so i may put them in there but i may also get a smaller tank (20 gallon) between now and then
 
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