? about my breeding pair of angel fish.

[discusboy777]

i hope you guys dont mind me posting an angel ? here but i do know alot of you keep angels so here i go.

my breeding pair of angels keep getting ready to spawn they do all the things they do when getting ready(clean a spot ther toobs come out all the way) but just when i think they are going to spawn they stop every thing they where doing and every thing goes back to normal. they are about a year 1/2 years old.

any help would be great.

thanks
Brad

[discusboy777]

any one know the strain of those angels.

thanks
Brad.

[Cb4h]

They look like to me smokey marbles. Is that what you are wondering?

[discusboy777]

thanks cb4h.
Now if any one knows my ubove ? about why they start to spawn then they dont please post.

thanks
Brad

[Ryan]

Brad,

How long have you had the angels? Did you buy them and let them pair off naturally or did you buy them as a mated pair?

In my experience, if you buy pairs it sometimes takes them a while to settle down. I've had pairs that take long breaks from spawning. My blue koi pair would spawn once a week for several months, then they would stop spawning for a few months. They did this naturally without me having to split them up. Sometimes for two months they would dance and show off and clean the slate in the tank, only to quit and lose interest. Then one day I'd come home to find eggs.

Sometimes you can trigger spawning by doing water changes or dropping the temperature just slightly. Lighting has played a role with some of my stubborn pairs -- one pair I had would shimmy and dance all over the slate for hours with the lights on, but the female would not actually start laying eggs until I turned the lights out. Each pair is different, so try different things with them.

Tell us a little more about your angels--how long have you had them, have they (supposedly) spawned before, what's your water like, etc?

Ryan

PS - They look like smokeys to me.

[discusboy777]

hi thanks for your reply.
i have had them for 2months and i got them as a breeding trio. The male would go from one end of tank to one set of eggs to that female eat and then rush back over to the other side to do the same thing. the second female is no longer in the tank. I am going to put the second female back in ther tank today.

thanks
Brad

[John_Nicholson]

Although I have raised a few thousand angels in my day this little bit of info is based on something that I have seen in discus 4 or 5 times now. You can have two males do that. My guess is that your trio is a reverse trio. Could be wrong but something you need to consider.

-john

[discusboy777]

i will try to geta pic of the male and two female this evening.

thanks
Brad

[Ryan]

Brad,

Pictures won't really help because you can't usually determine the sex of angels until you've seen them lay eggs, or you've examined their breeding tubes to determine male or female. Like John said, sometimes two males will show mating behavior, and often times females will lay eggs together as a pair.

The fish that you removed from the tank -- is she the confirmed female who laid eggs for you before?

Ryan

[discusboy777]

cant you normally tell the sex of angels by the shape of there head. the males is generly more round then females. i was going to post pic of ther tubes.

i never had eggs in my tank YET but when i got them they did. i trust my source he is not only a guy i do bussiness with but a freind.

i intruduced the other female to the tank today and the other male and female chased it all around the tank and cornerd it. is this a sighn of something or just the pecking order.

hope they score soon

thanks
Brad

[Ryan]

You have to be careful when you're dealing with a trio of angels. If you dump a third angel into an established pair's tank (whether they're actually a breeding pair or just a couple of fish) the third angel is going to take a beating. Discus behavior is similar to this. Keep an eye on the third angel and make sure it isn't being tortured -- you may need to remove it if things get out of hand.

The shape of an angel's head may sometimes be an indicator, but it certainly not a definite. I have had several angel pairs and sometimes the female shows "male" characteristics -- larger size, a more prominent head/nose region, aggressiveness. The only definite way is either by examining the breeding tubes or to see the actual spawning take place IMO.

Ryan