breeding fish seems to be like busses. u wait ages for one then all of a sudden u get 3 at once.

as some of u know my corys bred last week for the 1st time. my blue rams are breeding every 2 weeks or so at the the moment, my bristlenoses look like they may be 'courting' and then today i noticed a batch of eggs on a large amazon sword leaf and being guarded by my angels.

i have only had these angels since Feb this yr but they have grown quickly and settled in nicely. i wasnt expecting them to breed so soon and wasnt even sure if i'd be lucky enough to have a male female pair but it seems i have

from what i've read about sexing angels and from what i can see it appears that my marbel angel is the female. there is a protuberance visible on the female that i assume is the breeding tube.

i guess they may have laid the eggs yesterday or possibly the day before but i hadnt noticed. i did notice yesterday when i was trying to take pics of the tank that the silver (male) angel was being very aggressive towards the camera which is unsusual as he normaly swims away from it.

i took some pics today of the eggs and fish, which u can see below. i tried to get a pic of the marbel angels breeding tube but it wasnt easy partly as she kept facing up to the cam so it wasnt easy to take a side on pic. plus i guess the breeding tube is about to dissapear but i think if u look at my pics u can see what i am refering too.

at the moment both angels are staying near the eggs and keeping all the blue neons well away from them. they appear to be fanning the eggs a bit and also seem to have picked off any white eggs which i guess are bad ones. i am wondering what the angels will do if either of my bristlenoses try to clean the amazon leaves as the often do. altho if i keep my BN's well fed it may keep them from doing this. i am also wondering wether i should try and move the eggs to a sperate 'hatching tank' or just leave them and see what happens, although any new fry in this community tank probably wouldn't survive. i re-read Monkeh's 'breeding angels' post today and may try moving the eggs to my 6g tank to hatch and follow his general advice in hatching the eggs and raising the fry.

anyhoo, here are the pics i took ...

the eggs ...


mum guarding the eggs ...


mum with breeding tube just visible?! ...


dad keeping the neons at bay ...


dad, last night, getting ready to 'attack' camera, lol ...

Good on you !

We're still (im)patiently waiting for our Angels to 'get it on'.

Another reason for low-population tanks, to allow for natural rearing without high risk of predation.

Keep a log here of what you do, what you feed etc.

Re: all your fish breeding at once, mine were like that late last year. I'm of the opinion that hormones released into the water may trigger other species. Not so much a direct chemical link, as recognition that the season has arrived. Much like the drop in temp, followed by fresher water, to announce the rainy season.

talking of hormones did u know (i guess u might) that fish release a hormone into the water that inhibts growth hence if u want ur fish to grow quickly it's a good idea to do plenty of water changes and dilute the hormone.

makes me think that nature is damn clever. more fish = more hormone = less growth, which helps stop the tank/pond etc get too crowded.

UPDATE (on angels) : - bad news i'm affraid. looked in the tank today and all the eggs have gone. i guess maybe the eggs were bad and the parents have eatnen them, or the parents were hungry and not too good as parents or maybe the bristlemoses got to them during their nightime rounds.

oh well, no matter, atleast i know i have breeding pair . next time they lay eggs i will remove them to a seperate hatching tank and see if i can have some success that way.

My Bristle nose don't touch eggs. I've seen them work their way up and down leaf or glass, and they go around the Cory eggs !

I haven't heard of the Growth Inhibiting Hormone. Perhaps that's where the story of fish growing to suit their environment has come from. eg. They will grow larger, if in a larger tank.

Awesome news, Fishy.

As you know - even the eggs being gone isn't really bad news. Most species that I know of take a couple tries at least to get it right.

The good news is you have a valid pair, they're good looking, and they're starting to spawn. Please do keep a log on here. I've never spawned angels & would love to see what happens.

congrats on babies Yea!!!!!!!
I love babies.

no luck with that batch Billy, the eggs vanished after a couple of days. either the parents ate them or the BN's got to them. i am guessing as it was the 1st batch they may not have been fertile or the parents were just bad and ate them anyway.

anyho, today they have laid more i think i'll wait till tomorrow and then cut off the very large amazon leaf the eggs are laid on and move it to a seperate tank to try n hatch them.

oops. posted twice and now deleted

the news was that good fishypaw just had to post it twice

BUGGER, i've changed servers and before i was ready they have closed my webspace, so all my pics that i posted here over the last few months no longer exist

oh well, there is always my new server and photobucket. gonna be a pain tho to repost all the images.

anyho, talking of pics i thought i'd show what i did tonight. i set up my 6g tank as a hatching tank to see if i can hatch the new angel eggs. i took 6g of water from the main tank to fill the 6g, connected up[ a fluval 204 which might be slight over kill but the water cant be too clean i recon and included an airstone. i cut the leaf that had the eggs and using a jar transported the leaf over to the hatching tank being carefull to keep the eggs submerged as funky suggested in another post.

the leaf and eggs have been placed in a hatching net hung on the side of the tank and the inflow pipe from the filter is pointing towards it to provide a constant stream of water over the eggs. the air stone is positioned at the back, taking funky's advice again not to have the bubbles touch the eggs.

the hatching net will help keep the leaf and eggs in place and if the eggs hatch it will stop the fry being sucked into the filter.

if any of them hatch in a cuople of days i will update this post to let u all know how i get on. meantime here is a pic of the hatching tank set up ...



p.s. just noticed my pics are still here, although they werent a moment ago. lol. must have been the forum server and not my old one acting up. i'll need to grab the pics off my server that i didnt save to my pc and bung them on photobucket before my old server does close my webspace.

you have been busy have'nt you! that looks like a very good set up for the eggs have you thought of adding any meth. blue ? just a thought, any way i hope it is a success for you and look forward to more updates and pics

I have read that two females can pair and lay unfertile eggs, but it will take them a few times for them to get it right, if you do have a female and male.

they are young angels, only just matured. i am fairly sure it's male and female. this is only the second batch of eggs they have laid. i watched them lay them too and the male seemed to be fertalising them as the female laid them so hopefully they got it right this time. i'll let u guys know in a couple of days.

yea, i did think of adding some meth blue but i decided not to for now and see what happens. but thanks for the reminder Clunkster.

well fingers crossed for you and your angels

I've just scored another two young Angels.

The poor buggers don't know where to go. The other four older ones have split into two up either end of the tank. The newbies are caught in middle, in the cross-fire.