Lone Female Angel Egg Laying

[Nana Finopolis]

"Slice", (my koi angel) used to live in a 40G breeder but started laying eggs about every two weeks and got aggressively protective of her "babies". She chased a bolivian ram relentlessly and harassed the cardinal tetras into hiding behind the sword plant and never coming out. So, she now lives alone in a 29G. She continues laying eggs about every two weeks. She tries to care for them by fanning the eggs for quite some time before eating them. Do any of you have experience in providing a mate when they are already mature and laying? Anything I should do or not do to try to be more successful IF I decide to try breeding her? 

Kathy & Slice & Dice 

[Brandy]

Sounds like she is going to be a really good momma!

I would think you might have to give her choices, because I don't know how to determine if a male is a male. If It were me, I would make a deal with a LFS that had some decent angels that they would sell you an assortment (1-3 maybe) of larger angels and introduce them to her space when she doesn't have eggs. Then I would return the rejects until she picked one. This might be a hard sell. It may rely on your relationship with the LFS. If that is not an option I would look for a local hobbyist that might be willing to trade a male she will accept for future babies or something.

Maybe @Dean’s Fishroom or @Daniel can offer better advice- I have never tried to breed angels! It seems like I remember Dean saying that he has changed mates in bonded pairs before, so that seems like it should be possible.

[Daniel]

I would defer to @Dean’s Fishroom as I have never tried mate swapping.