I have a pair of Angelfish that have spawned for the very first time. I am assuming that the eggs have been fertilised.
I have attached photos of the eggs and the "parents". I think that the black one is the male, but I am open to correction as I have no experience with sexing these.
This is a community tank and I have 4 brittle nose plecs, one black widow tetra, two scissortail, two harlequins and a cardinal tetra. Quite a few snails are present too.
I have a few questions, please.
1) how do I tell if the eggs have been fertilised?
2) Will the others in the community eat the fry assuming there is a hatch?
3) What is the incubation period? (I am not too sure when spawning occurred.
4) If I do need to make changes, should I move the fry or the rest of the community and leave the parents in charge?
Thank you in anticipation.
To answer you questions in order:
1) if they turn white, ( as some of your have already) those eggs are dead. If they do not turn white after 24 hours, they were fertilized. ( They could also be fertilized and still die so the key is the color. )
2) There's as much of a chance that the other fish in the tank will eat the eggs as they will the fry should they survive.
3) At 78-80 degrees, the eggs should hatch in 3 days ( 72 hours) . If the temp is cooler, it will take longer. If the temp is warmer, it will take less time.
4) Breeding fish in a community setting is very difficult as the parents can do everything from fending off the other fish in order to try to protect their spawn to killing every other fish in the tank to protect their spawn. Angelfish can be really rough on the other fish in the tank. They are not good fish to have spawning in a community tank.
Just so you know, it is quite often that the first few spawns of Angelfish are duds. Most often it's because the tank setup is not conducive for a successful spawning but there are other reasons as well ranging from inexperience to not fertilizing the eggs in time. So don't be disappointed if this one fails. If you have the option, set up the pair in another tank by themselves. If that is not possible, you can put a divider in the tank they are in so that no fish can get through. The reason this is not the best option is because the fry can swim through most dividers or go around the framework for the dividers.
As for sexing your fish, sadly, many Angels now express physical characteristics of the opposite gender so the only 100% way of sexing them is to watch them when they prepare to spawn or are spawning. Females will have an ovipositor ( breeding tube) that is thicker and squarer than a male. It will look more like a pencil eraser while the male's tube will be short and pointed like a sharpened pencil. If that doesn't work, the one laying the eggs is the female.
The subject of breeding Angelfish has been discussed many times over in this forum. You can find a lot of information in a thread titled Wigglers at last!!!!! (by member AngelWings) which was an ongoing conversation between professional Angelfish breeders and hobbyists about breeding Angelfish. Just do a search for the thread. If you can't find it, do a search for Wigglers at last and you will see a number of threads about this subject. ( I know I've answered quite a few of them.
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Hope this helps.
