Identifying Angelfish Pair

[CanadianFishDad]

I bought 3 Juvenile angelfish in June of this year. At the time I didn't have any intention of breeding them, they were going to be kept in my 110gallon community. Well, after getting back into the hobby full swing again, about a month later, I bought two more angelfish juveniles with the hopes of having some pairing going on. 

I had all 5 of these angels in my 110gallon community and after another month of them all together, I had some serious aggression happening from one angel in particular. I ended up moving that angel to its own temporary tank until I could setup another system for them because I didn't want the others to get injured or have their fins nipped. 

 

Fast forward, to now, I believe that two of my angels have paired up. They have not laid eggs but they constantly follow each other around the tank and hangout together, leaving two of the others to venture on their own. The question is, do you think I should move them to their own tank and move the previously aggressive one back in with the remaining other two? is it too much stress for them to do this moving? I'm new to the breeding but I am very eager to get into it. 

 

I guess I just want to see if I can get them to breed successfully. 

 

Any help for a beginner would be welcome.

 

[Fish Folk]

On 11/9/2021 at 5:40 PM, CanadianFishDad said:

I bought 3 Juvenile angelfish in June of this year. At the time I didn't have any intention of breeding them, they were going to be kept in my 110gallon community. Well, after getting back into the hobby full swing again, about a month later, I bought two more angelfish juveniles with the hopes of having some pairing going on. 

I had all 5 of these angels in my 110gallon community and after another month of them all together, I had some serious aggression happening from one angel in particular. I ended up moving that angel to its own temporary tank until I could setup another system for them because I didn't want the others to get injured or have their fins nipped. 

 

Fast forward, to now, I believe that two of my angels have paired up. They have not laid eggs but they constantly follow each other around the tank and hangout together, leaving two of the others to venture on their own. The question is, do you think I should move them to their own tank and move the previously aggressive one back in with the remaining other two? is it too much stress for them to do this moving? I'm new to the breeding but I am very eager to get into it. 

 

I guess I just want to see if I can get them to breed successfully. 

 

Any help for a beginner would be welcome.

 

Angelfish, as you may well know, are notoriously difficult to sex. Sometimes, when very mature, males may develop a small nuchal hump on the head. However, the only time-tested way to determine a pair is to actually see them spawn.

If you want to really breed angels, you'll want to get some pieces of slate to lean against your tank interior. Up water changes, and feed with quality live foods -- Black Worms, in particular, are the very best for bringing Cichlids into breeding condition.

Here are the videos from a full Spawning report we posted last year on breeding Angels. My son did these for BAP with our Fish Club...

And here is a recent video showing Discus and Killifish enjoying live Black Worms...

 

[Struggle]

When I grow out angels I’ll separate them from the group when they pair up and put them in a 20T. Like fish folk, lots of good food, live, frozen, etc., slate to lay eggs on and warm water (82ish) will usually trigger them to spawn for me.

[anewbie]

I can sex them pretty well (maybe 75% of the time) but only as young adults pre pairing. Having said that unless they are sexually mature (3-4 inches at least - unless you have runt) you might be misinterpreting their behavior. Young ones will bicker to see who is 'boss' sometimes - i have had sets of young ones that bicker for 3-4 months before establishing an 'order' and at other times other sets that have never bickered until they become adults. However when they become adults they will bicker sharply - dependent on sexes. I have a 120 with 8 angles and they all have scars - i have 3 pairs  - 2 strong - one weak - 5 males 3 females. If you end up with all females things might be peaceful; if all males things might be peaceful; if more at least 1 male and 1 female things will not be calm. It might be calm for a little while and they might appear to get along but eventually as they get older they will fight.

[HH Morant]

Out of 13 angels in a 120 gallon tank, I have 3 pairs. Two of the pairs lay eggs every few weeks. They eat the eggs soon after laying them. The third pair just can't seem to get it right. I think they have tried to lay eggs, but the eggs don't stick to whatever they are laying them on and end up floating in the tank.

All my angels are a little over one year old, so they might get better at it.

I saved a spawn from each of the two successful pairs. One spawn is 3 weeks old and the other is one week old. More work than I anticipated with daily water changes and multiple feedings. But fun.

I don't do anything special to make the angels spawn. I don't feed live food. I do over-filter the tank (biological filtering, not mechanical), so the bacteria level in the water is low and the water is clear.

I don't claim to be able to sex the angels, although as they get older the nuchal hump becomes more pronounced.