when angels pair off?

So how do you know if your angelfish paired off is it when they spawn or do they start swimming in two's?


I have 4 and theres two dark veils that swim together and then my silver/orange and a dark veil that swim together and i just wasn't sure if thats what im looking for or not.

When they pair off and begin to spawn they will start beating up and chasing away all the others from their spawning site.

okay cool :)
can they chase off and beat up from their spawning sight even if there is no eggs yet? sorry im a total noob to egg laying fish in general :)

Generally once they pick and start cleaning the spawning site they will keep the others away from the area, this can go on for days before they spawn. Good Luck

Yeah you will see the pair stick together for the most part and may see their "tubes" start to come down. The female and male have small tubes that come out right next to their "anus" The males is a little pointer then the females but this will mean they are in spawn mode.

They will likely pick one spot to lay their eggs but may clean off many different spots in the process. Normally they become aggressive towards all other fish (this is why many have to be removed from the tank while spawning) they can and will kill other fish in the tank.

Once the eggs are laid (normally some type of completely or partially vertical surface) such as leaves, slate, in my case a PVC pipe and the male will follow behind the female to fertilize them. After about 24-48 hours the unfertilized eggs will turn white and start to grow fungus. If you leave the parents with the eggs they will likely clean away these eggs. The parents can also eat good eggs and it can take many times before they figure out what it is they are doing.

After about 60 hours from being fertilized the eggs will start to wiggle, you will see little hair like things on the eggs. The parents at this point may choose to move the eggs to another surface. If you read about what mine did it looked like the female ate all the eggs but she was really just moving them! haha

I would say it took roughly 5-7 days before all the wigglers started free swimming and from that point on feeding them plenty of baby brine shrimp they grow quick!

Good luck!

Oo ty nice info! i have some tile slates and i have this fake rock ornament thats upright they have been hanging around that ornament but havnt been to aggressive i jsut had to move them into their perma tank today so i figure that messed up what ever they where trying to do. I'm keeping my eye open thought for that behavior becuase out of the 4 im trying to only keep 1 pair :)

Very cool!

What mine do is "clean" a few surfaces. This normally looks like they are pecking food off of it (same mouth motion) and then sometimes it is more of a fanning motion. It won't matter how clean it is they will just keep doing it. For me it is always the female that gets the ball rolling.

She swells up (almost looks like really bad bloat) but her tube is down. It took mine 10days between spawns so the eggs grow quickly once they start the spawning process. Not sure how long it takes the first time though since mine had already spawned when I got them.

She normally cleans the tubes with vigor and that gets the male interested in whats going on. He will then start cleaning I suppose to say he cares and agrees with the spot. This can go on for days... the first time they cleaned a spotless pipe for 3 days then laid eggs this last time it took less then 24 hours... so haha...

I pulled the eggs out of the tank that had the parents in it 24 hours after they where laid last time and it worked well (got 29 free swimming fry right now) this time I have left the eggs with the parents and so far they are doing a great job! This varies from pair to pair so just be warned that the first few times if you leave the eggs with them they may just eat the eggs... there are also pairs that just never get it.

It is note worthy that when the female moved the eggs she took them to a flat surface instead of another vertical one. Don't know if that is always the case but it makes sense because once the eggs start wiggling they will fall off of the vertical surface to the bottom (this is why a bare bottom tank for raising the non free swimming fry helps)

Yeah i had a bare bottom 10 gallon where i was going to pull the eggs into but tonight my husband decided it would be fun to without asking add sand to it.... i dont think he realizes that sometimes you need a barebottom! silly husband.

i hope i get a pair off soon im very excited about it. Can i keep the angel eggs and fry with young less that 1/2 inch livebearer fry? that was my plan and i figured it would be fine but want a second opinion.

Not really sure to be honest. If it was me I would put a few eggs in the tank and see what happens. If the livebearers seem to pay no attention to them I would think they would be fine but that's just me.