Angel Breeding

Hello all, I would like some advice on breeding Scalare. I have two in a 60l tank, quite well planted, 26 degrees, with soft, acidic water, (I think, the test kits are expensive!). They are kept company by 4 corys, 4 cardinals, 2 cherry barbs and a pleco.

How should I go about it? I'm pretty sure they are into each other, I had 4 in there, but the one started chasing off 2 of the others and hanging around with the third, so I assumed they were three males competing for the attention of a female. Is there a better way to check? They are still quite small, how big should they be?

I'm quite excited, as this is my first proper breeding venture. Any help would be appreciated :blink1:

 

they should start breeding at about a year as far as I know and if I were you I would take out the pleco soon it is going to get way to big for that tank and if your angels lay eggs the pleco will eat them up. The best way to breed angels is to put them in there own tank with a temp of about 26 deg and do a water change with colder water to drop the temp but go have a look at this thread http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=1535 it is all the info I got to get my angels to breed.

 

Thanks Gareth, much appreciated.

Ha, will take him out, stick him in my 200l...

 

Much better option there. :blink1:

 

Reading through your post gareth, it's really informative, thank you! Getting excited just reading it...

 

Thanks. I am trying to get them to breed again but I want a higher survival rate because on 32 survived in the last batch

 

Ok, good luck. How many eggs were there..?

 

Yip as Gareth said, angels will usually pair up at around 7months to a year depending on size etc. They can lay anything from very few eggs to around 800 eggs at a time. Survival rate of the fry depends on a number of things, most importantly diet, water changes and other tank mates. Good luck

 

I have one reservation about breeding the angels, what do I do with the 100+ fry? :hmmmm:

 

Answer: MTS

 

get more tanks and sell them when they are ready....lol

 

i am going to start breeding them in 2 weeks

1)THE TANK
(make sure they arnt in a main tank as the other fish will eat the eggs)
needs a minimum height 30cm
length 60cm
width 25cm

2)the filter. the best type of filter to use is a hang on it is the easiest to protect against fry being sucked up.to make the filter safe you cover the intake with spong all around (cars sponge is the best)
cut a hole out and place the intake in th

3)preparing the tank
it is best to have as many suface areas as possible for the angelfish to spawn on.
it is best to have no substrate as it is much easier to clean

4)telling the sex
the only effective way of telling the sex is when they are actualy spawning
themale has a smaller and more pointed papile(reproductive organ)
the females is rounder and a little bit thicker
(it is very hard to tell the difference but it is useful to know as you can replace one that dies or gets sick with the same sex)

5)spawning
day 1: they will obviously start spawing dont worry if they start picking at the eggs those are the loose ones that would fall to the bottom and get eaten by other fish anyway

day2:the eggs will start to hatch this is the wriggler stage when they attach themselves to the spawning surface

day5:start a batch of brine shrimp for the first feed(the parents will move the spawn up to five times during the week so this is when the multiple spawning sufaces become useful)the parents will move them with their mouths so dont get wooried when they do so

day6:the fry will start swimming today between distances

day7:let them swim around for a few hours before giving them their first feed of brine shrimp.After all of the fry are swimming feed them their first brine shrimp.(you can tell if you are over feeding them by the size of their bellies)
Leave them for about 30-45 minutes as this is their first feed then siffen out the left over food.Feed the fry three times a day with brine shrimp like 8am 4pm and 9pm doing a water change after the first and last feed do a 10-15% water change.For the siffen you can use a pipe from one of the siffens you already have but it must be big anough for the fry that might get sucked up to not get stuck in the pipe(dont worry if they get sucked up just place them back in the tank gently with a net for fry.

day10:
lots of the fry would have died by now because of the incapability to catch brine shrimp (dont stress this is a natural part of nature just siffen out the dead fry from the bottom of the tank when doing a water change .the angels might eat them that alright it is a source of protein)

day14:seperation
seperate the fry because the parents will naturaly eat dying fry and you want to minimise this also the parents will be now 2 weeks till their next batch and you want to give them a rest.To seperate the tank you can either take the parents out of that tank and place them in to another tank as the fry are small and will be affected by new water or you can place a seperation between the tank mkae sure the fish still have enough space and place another filter in.
if you dont have any space for the next batch just move the parents into another tank and when they next spawn the eggs will get eaten by the other fish or you can remove them from the tank manualy.

day17:still feeding them 3 times a day

day25:new spawning will start and will spawn again every three weeks
had the fry been kept with the new spawn the fry would be harrased and picked at
you must have multiple tanks if you want to breed and hatch every generation of fry they can have up to 3-4 spawns of fry

day33:the fry begin to morph into their adult forms

day40:the fry can now stopped being fed three times a day and now can be fed two times a day.water changes can now be 30-40% every day only once a day
maturing takes about 3-4 months

day60:split the fry into two groups based on size the smaller fish tand not to eat as quickly as the larger more greedy fry
by seperating them it allows time to eat their foo and catch up on their growth rates

day80:remarkable markings from the parents will come through
i want to breed one silver wild with one koi angel fish and the marking will be awsome
on this day you can start advertising your fish for sale or give them away to friends

breeding angelfish is very rewarding and is soo exciting i hope you enjoy

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaH! So exciting, thanks Mc1, very informative.

One question, to trigger spwaning in the parents, I can try a water change with cooler warter and increased live food? Any other tips?

 

nope dont think so the time will come
my angels just randomly started spawning in my small 100l tank
i was very excited but didnt know what i was doing so the eggs got chowed by the parents and other fish sometimes the parents do eat their eggs at their first spawn
oh and i forgot to tell you thet the best surfaces are an amazon sword plant a teracote pot and a teracote tile

 

Ok, so just bide my time... eish.

Thanks very much

 

its a pleasure thats what a forum is for isnt it

 

Gaawie, assuming your angels are at the right age and are the right sex, you can induce spawning by increasing the amount of live food you give to them, or giving them more frozen foods combine this with a water change with slightly cooler water and hey presto.......the spawning will begin.

 

Thanks Veegal. So what is the right age..?

 

anything from a year would be good, I think anyway

 

I dont know how old they were when I bought them, can I tell by size? I know nutrition, water conditions affects it, but is there another way of telling, or do I just guess...?