Angelfish - Care and Breeding

There are a number of different species of Angelfish but the one I always liked best was the Common Silver Angelfish. Typically they have for vertical stripes and a red eye like this one to your right.

You can find this angelfish in northern South America. They live in overgrown and heavily planted waters. They also prefer slow flowing or still waters. The Angelfish is one of the most common cichlids among fishkeepers and it is available in almost every fish store across America with lots of different varieties.

Lifespan: Up to 10 years!

Size: Up to 6'

Food: You can raise Angelfish on a higher quality flake food or live foods.

Temperature: Angelfish do best in a temperature range of 70° to 82°. 

Habitat: Heavily planted tanks are ideal for the angelfish. These fish are also great in a community tank but are less likely to breed in a community.

Male on the left and female on the right. Note the breeding tubes.

Sexing: There's really no easy way to sex this fish. What I have done in the past is picked about five that I like and raise them up until I got a pair or two. However, once you get a pair there are signs that you can look for to sex them. But, at that point what's the difference, you already have a pair:) Once you get your pair you can observe them and after a while you learn that the breeding tube on your fish has a different shape and size from male to female. Here's a comparison photo.


Breeding: Once you have a breeding pair it is best to put them in a separate breeding tank that is at least 24" long and 15" deep. The tank doesn't need to be all packed with luxuries. Just put some nice clean gravel in the tank, a Sword plant, and a flat piece of slate stone. The piece of slate should be as long as the depth of the tank and you can lean it up against the side of the tank so they have a vertical surface to lay eggs on. You want to raise the waters temperature steadily to around 79° - 82°.

Once the breeding pair is accustomed to their new breeding tank they will eventually spawn on either the sword plant leaves or the piece of slate after cleaning the chosen breeding site like crazy! (On occasion they will spawn on glass.) Once you see them start to clean the breeding site you can be sure they're going to start laying eggs soon. A female Angelfish can lay up to 400 eggs per spawn and the male fertilizes them immediately after the female lays them.


Egg Care: There's a few ways to care for the eggs but the most fascinating to me is watching the parents take care of the eggs themselves:) The parents will hover over the eggs and fan them with oxygen filled water tell the eggs hatch. They will also gently "chew" the eggs to clean them and they will also help the fry get released from the egg shell. Once they release the fry from the eggs, they will actually take them up in their mouthes and move them to other sites that have been cleaned. There are times when parents will eat the eggs but be sure to give them two or three spawnings to see what they will do. If they continue to eat the eggs, be sure to transfer the eggs out of the spawning tank right after they are laid. Make sure to keep the eggs on whatever they where laid on and move them (quickly!) to a smaller aquarium containing about 1 - 2 gallons of water from the actual breeding tank. Make sure to keep this tank temperature at the temp you had it set to in the breeding tank. You want to also try and use an air stone to run bubbles gently over the eggs to simulate the fanning of the parents. It will take about three days for the eggs to hatch:)

When eggs are hatched away from parents they tend to get egg fungus. Just make sure to add a fungus treatment to the tank right when you move the eggs.

When the fry hatch they will be able to feed on there yolk sac for another 3 to 4 days. As soon as the fry become free swimming and are feeding regularly on newly hatched brine shrimp, transfer them to a grow out tank. Make sure the grow out tank has no other fish in it and the tank is at least a 20 gal tank.

Once you have them all moved into their new tank it's just a matter of feeding them to grow them up. The newly hatched brine shrimp are going to be their main food source for the next week or so and at that point you can try to feed them powdered flake food. Gradually move them up to bigger size pieces and so on:)

If you have any questions please join us at our facebook group HERE!

God Bless!

Earthworms

Earthworms are often overlooked as a viable food source for your fish and I have no clue as to why. As many of you know, you can get earthworms relatively cheaply at pet stores and fish and tackle stores, but if you have access to a garden, or just a patch of ground that has some soil thing you should be able to collect more than you would need to feed your fish for FREE!!

Go outside right after rainy weather or a heavy fog, take a shovel, and plunge it into the ground, and turn it over! You should get plenty of earthworms in that one shovelful:)