The marble showed that behavior the entire 3 days the fry swam with their parents on the other side of the divider. She acted like a mother....going sideways and nailing ANY fish who came near the divider. The marble is the smallest angel in the tank of 6 adults. I believe she is just a runt (explanation for my belief to follow). The odd part was, at one point, she slipped through the side of the divider (as I said, she's quite small), and the parents almost killed her. Apparently, they don't want her help. I managed to get her back to the other side, but instead of acting hurt or angry, she took up her post as "protector" even more fiercely! She did not come from the same breeder, so she's no relation to the parents. Actually, I've had the marble the longest. She just never grew larger than half-dollar size. She shows no signs of Illness, and in fact is now showing her own breeding tube. Unfortunately, no male has shown interest. I have 3 pair of breeding angels (every 10 days like clockwork). I also have 2 pair of breeding rams. I understand that they are just fish, with instincts, but....they definitely show individual behaviors! I raised the black/gold pair from little adolescents. I did not know they were paired until I saw eggs the first time, because I never saw the lip-locking, crazy fighting, that I was told pair's do. They swam together, cleaned spots together, and to this day....I've never seen the male peck the female. He follows her like a puppy, let's her peck the crap out of him when she gets angry, and does nothing but try to kill anyone who comes near her or the eggs. They did not even try to eat their eggs on the first spawn. The eggs all turned white, but they had free swimming by their third try. The black mom gets "depressed" if her babies don't make it. She sulks around, hides, and doesn't eat much after they've passed. She only comes out to "visit" the spots where they were,..to make sure they're not there....and goes back to sulking until her belly starts growing again about 3 days later. Then she resurfaces like a fish on a mission. My white pair had been breeding before I purchased them. I tried leaving the eggs with them the first 2 times. The first....the male ate them. The second, neither seemed to know what to do. The female kept fanning, but would leave the eggs to go fight with the male, and be pissed when she returned and saw that a denison barb had eaten some....which led to her pecking at the male even more. They were used to having the eggs pulled. I don't think they can learn parenting skills after a year of not parenting. My male ram is down right mean. He almost kills the female every spawn. I've yet to see eggs make it over 24 hours. I thought this was just the german blue ram "way", yet my more recent pair are gentle and nice to each other. They have eggs now. I'm curious to see how it pans out. And, then there's "shadow".... The little protecter marble. I'm sorry for the long response, but watching their behavior just fascinates me. All fish are not the same. Period! Unfortunately, I am learning right along with my fish. Each angel pair has had 3 spawns each. The furthest I've gotten is 3 days free swimming. On the spawn discussed in this thread, the mom kept the fry in the middle/top section of the tank, and taught them to stay away from the sides of the divider. They all had orange BBS filled bellies. On the 3rd day, she took them to a corner at the bottom of the tank....I'm assuming to rest. I checked on them at 2 am...and they were still hovering in the corner. When I woke up in the morning and turned on lights, the mom FREAKED! The fry were gone. She frantically searched, and pulled 6 from the rocks. I pulled the 6, thinking they were getting sucked into the rocks? But they died within 24 hours of putting them in the fry tank (with water siphoned to from the main tank). They swam after the move, but became belly sliders after 1 night, and died. I pull the white pairs eggs (following good instructions about methelyne blue, air stone placement, and heat. For some reason, the white pair's eggs are much bigger than the black/gold pair, anyone know why that would be? I've gotten wigglers, but they never swim. I'm not sure if I have a parasite at the bottom of my main tank (that killed the fry when they went to the bottom, or if I have my heat too high, or they're just not strong genes, or what mistakes I'm making, but I learn from every spawn, and won't give up until I get it right! Breeding (and the behaviors) fascinates me! So, sorry again for my big response, but I think it's all so interesting!
. I watched my adolescent marble angelfish put 3 in her mouth, with no way to help them. But....as I watched....the marble tried to spit the babies back to the parents! She keeps going sideways and attacking any fish (all are twice her size) that dares come near the divider! Then, she tries to spit them back to the parents over and over again. Has anyone else had this type of experience? I'm guessing this female marble is gonna make a great mom, as she's already defending babies....that aren't even hers!
