• When will our angelfish start breeding?

 

Two main factors will determine the onset of breeding. These will include the care they've had while raising them, and the space you give them. With great care and adequate space, angelfish may be capable of breeding at 5 1/2 to 7 months of age. With poor care, it may take much longer or maybe never. Space is very important. No matter how capable angelfish are of spawning, an overcrowded tank will inhibit this. Give them a minimum of 15 liters per angelfish if you want pairing to take place quickly. 25 liters would be even better. Some strains will not mature as early, even under the best conditions. This will include Double Dark Black angelfish and most wild and wild crosses.

 

• How long will angelfish live?

 

They are a cold-blooded animal, so their metabolism is controlled by the temperature. High temperature equals high metabolism, and a high metabolism seems to "burn them out" quickly. Consequently, their life span will vary with the temperature they are kept at. Angelfish appear to have a maximum life span in the range of 10-12 years. To achieve this, you will probably have to keep them in the mid seventies. Keep in mind that low temperatures will increase life span, but will also decrease spawning frequency and leave their immune system less responsive.

 

• How long will angelfish continue to breed?

 

A few factors will come into play here. First, the female is the key in a pair, and each female seems capable of laying a certain number of eggs in her lifetime. If they are laid frequently in large numbers when she is young, then she may run out of mature eggs and quit at a younger age than if she had delayed spawning. In other words, high temperatures will increase the rate eggs are laid and the female angelfish will become infertile at a younger age. Genetics is also an important factor. Some angelfish capable of spawning larger numbers of eggs have acquired this trait through selective breeding. Care is another important factor. Raising angelfish under substandard care will cause females to lose condition and not produce eggs, even when still capable. We've seen female angelfish that spawned until 7- 8 years old and we've also known angelfish to be completely spawned-out at two years of age. Long term, it's important to choose breeder angelfish based on their fecundity. To do this properly takes many breeding pairs to choose from and few aquarists will be able to do this. Fortunately, we have the tank space to do this for you.

 

• How many eggs will a female angelfish lay at one time?

This will be determined by genetics and care. There will be some angelfish in every spawn that will grow up to be poor breeders. You must be willing to not breed these fish if you want to avoid taking a step back in this area. The number of eggs per spawn, will also be affected by frequency of spawning. Female angelfish that tend to hold their eggs for longer time periods, will usually lay more eggs at a time. Conversely, an angelfish that lays every 5 days, will probably put down fewer at a time. Feeding, temperature, water changes, etc. will affect the number laid. It's obvious that the best care will produce the largest number. We've seen spawns that exceed 2000 eggs, though the average for a females regularly laying with good care, would be in the 400-500 range. There is no lower limit. Pay particular attention to raising angelfish properly and they will reward you with lots of eggs.
 

• What should I feed to get good angelfish growth and reproduction?
   

A varied diet of high quality foods should be your goal. A couple of the highest quality flakes you can get would be a good daily staple. Breeding fish need a higher fat content then most flakes provide. Angels Plus fish flakes have the fat content your breeding angelfish need. The addition of Freeze-dried foods, like plankton, bloodworms, mysis, tubifex or brine shrimp are good supplements. Paste food scan be superior foods if you have the time to make them. Live foods are not necessary, but they will go a long way to providing superior angelfish growth and reproduction. We do not recommend live freshwater animals, unless they are cultured. The chance of introducing harmful parasites or bacteria is too great in our opinion. We specifically do not recommend live blackworms for many reasons. You will be hard pressed to avoid diseases if you feed them. Newly hatched artemia (baby brine shrimp), should be fed as a first food and continuously until the angelfish fry are 4-6 weeks old. Check out our hints for hatching brine shrimp eggs. Raising angelfish on newly hatched brine shrimp is a must for the first 3-4 weeks of their life, if quality is really important to you. Trust us, there are no artemia substitutes that works as well - none! We have experimented with everything and nothing comes close to working as well as the real thing.
 

• What type of filtration should I give my new angelfish?
   

Angelfish are not streamlined enough to do well in tanks with a lot of current. We recommend sponge filters, undergravel filters, or bubble-up box filters. If you have a large tank and want to add a secondary undersized power filter, canister filter or fluidized bed filter, it will be okay as long as it is considered too small for that tank size.

 

• What size tank can your sponge filter handle?

 

Filters are designed to handle bio-load, not a particular tank size. Although companies tend to rate their filters to tank size, this is incorrect. Filters are capable of containing a certain number of nitrifying bacteria that will consume a particular volume of ammonia and nitrites. A certain sized bio-load in a small tank will require the approximately the same filtration as the same bio-load in a large tank. However, since the tank walls and other items also contain nitrifying bacteria, the same bio-load in a smaller tank will require a slightly larger filter size then the large tank. To rate filters, try to compare volume of sponge used and the density of the sponge. Our opinion is that bio-filtration is typically not a limiting factor in most tanks. It is more important to get a filter with a good design. The best filters are ones that get the sponge close to the bottom of the tank, which will improve water movement to the filter and gas exchange at the surface. You also need a filter that small angelfish will not get trapped under. Our sponge filters handle this combination of factors better than any other, in our opinion.

 

• Should the tank be bare or is gravel recommended?

 

Gravel is normal for show tanks, however it is not considered the best thing for breeding situations. Any tank with angelfish fry in it should have a bare bottom. Otherwise, the small food that fry need, will fall into the gravel where it can't be eaten and it will decompose, causing problems in the tank. It is best if bare bottom tanks are painted a dark color on the outside bottom of the tanks. Angelfish will feel much more secure and develop better color in a dark bottomed tank.

 

• What other fish can I keep with angelfish?

 

We recommend that angelfish be kept by themselves for a few reasons. First, other fish commonly harbor pathogens that are not an obvious problem with to the other fish, but are very harmful to angelfish. Most people will not quarantine properly or know how to identify or eliminate these pathogens. Second, angelfish are cichlids and are typically fairly aggressive when they pair off. Smaller fish in the tank could be in danger. Lastly, some angelfish will not pair up as readily in a community situation (especially if it's crowded), and most of us wouldn't want that. The exception to this is keeping a bristlenose ansistrus or some corydoras with them if you are certain they don't carry pathogens. If you must have that community tank, then add some tetras that are too large to be eaten and possibly some of the more peaceful South Americans such as, discus, festivums or urarus. Remember to use a good quarantine procedure, or expect to lose your angelfish to disease.

 

• How often should I feed my angelfish?

 

This will be largely related to temperature and age.. If angelfish are kept warm, they will need more frequent feedings to keep up with the resulting higher metabolism. Juvenile angelfish over 4 weeks of age, kept at approximately 22°- 25°, will do quite well with 3 feedings a day. Keep them at 27°-30° and you should probably increase this to at least 4 feedings a day. Full grown adults will need less than fish that are still growing, and producing female angelfish will need more food if you desire frequent spawning. If you are someone who cannot feed more than twice a day, we would recommend keeping and raising angelfish at a temperature no warmer than 25°.

 

• How often should I change their water?
   

This is one area where you can do too few, but you can't do too many. Many factors go into this. More angelfish per gallon require more frequent changes, as do higher temperatures, heavy feedings, high pH and large angelfish. You can change the water as frequently as every day or even after every feeding, but we would recommend no fewer than once a week in any circumstance. The more you change water, the easier keeping and raising angelfish becomes.

 

• How much water should I change at one time?
   

No hard rules here either. If the water going in, has the same basic parameters of pH and hardness as the water being removed, you wouldn't be able to change too much. Tests have shown that changing 10% of the water everyday is less effective than changing 50% once every 5 days, in maintaining water quality. Many breeders of angelfish will change 50% of the water or more each day on tanks where they are raising angelfish, whereas a well planted, under-stocked show tank may do okay on only 20% a week.
 

• How can I tell the male angelfish from the female angelfish?

 

There are some subtle differences that an experienced angelfish breeder can use to help identify mature males and females. In our experience, these differences do not exist on immature angelfish, all of the time. The only sure way to distinguish mature males from mature females is to examine the breeding tubes during spawning. The female's breeding tube is wider and more blunt than the male's. In some lines the mature male angelfish may show some other small differences. For instance, some may have a hump on the crown and some may be larger than the females. However, this may not hold true from line to line or even within a line. There are many who say the angle of the anal fin in relation to the belly of the angelfish, will identify the sex. We have not found this to be consistent, but it does appear to have some validity in some lines. The female angelfish will generally have a near 100°-110° angle formed by the forward edge of the belly and the anal fin. The male angelfish will have a greater angle in the range of 120°-150° degrees. Most often it requires a lot of experience to detect the subtle differences seen in some lines.

 

• My angels were very stressed from shipment and are not eating. What should I do?

 

Occasionally, a shipment is mistreated by the carrier or delayed an unusually long time. This can leave the fish stressed to the point where they are not active and not eating. First, make sure they are comfortable. They should be in a quarantine tank with an active sponge filter. Lights should be low level or off and temperatures should be gradually raised to 32°. You can hold it there for 10 days to 2 weeks. The tank should have a dark colored, bare bottom, to make siphoning uneaten food easy. The fish should not be fed for the first 24 hours after shipping and longer if they are not acting somewhat normal. The best first-foods would be very small amounts of dry foods. Large quantities can greatly stress newly shipped fish. If you can't get them eating this, then live foods in very small amounts can be tried. They will almost always come around and do well with proper care.