Angelfish Breading

[TheVeilTaleAngelMaster]

Hey guys! So in my 55 gallon angelfish tank (with 4 angels) 1 female laid eggs with no partner. A week later her and another angelfish looked and acted like a pair. Soon after, she laid eggs again and they both protected and fanned the eggs. 5 days later there was no sign of wigglers and most of the eggs where gone. None had fungus. So why were the eggs not hatching? I would appreciate any answers!

 

[Byron]

You probably have commercially-raised angelfish, as opposed to wild caught. For some reason, the first several spawns of commercially-raised fish tend to get eaten, regardless of other fish in the tank; the angelfish themselves eat the eggs. Wild caught fish never do this in the aquarium unless stressed by other fish.

I'm not sure how many spawns might occur before things change. Another aspect is the male/female may or may not bond. They must select their mates, and they can bond for a considerable period, sometimes even life-long. Spawning can still occur without a bond, but here again the success is usually short-lived. And if the pair do not bond, one (usually but not always the male) can suddenly turn on the other and it will be seriously bullied, frequently to death.

Females have been known to lay eggs without a male. Obviously, these would not be fertilized.

 

[Colin_T]

You probably have commercially-raised angelfish, as opposed to wild caught. For some reason, the first several spawns of commercially-raised fish tend to get eaten, regardless of other fish in the tank; the angelfish themselves eat the eggs. Wild caught fish never do this in the aquarium unless stressed by other fish.

Just elaborating on this.
Angelfish and other cichlids learn from their parents. Wild angelfish look after their eggs and young and show good parental care. In Asia where most aquarium fish are bred, the eggs are taken away from the parents to be hatched and the fry reared separately. The baby angelfish never see their parents and get no parental care, so don't know how to be parents. They have to learn by trial and error and after about 5 or 6 batches of eggs, they usually start to get the hang of it.

Think of it as a human couple trying to have and rear a baby without any help, books or knowledge from anyone else. Woman becomes pregnant and gets fat, then she has a baby. Man stands there going WTF is going on. Baby pops out and screams, adults scream, blood and amniotic fluid everywhere. It's a mess and nobody knows what to do.

Commercially raised angelfish never see an adult angelfish and don't get books or videos on how to be a good parent. So they make it up as they go along. The female lays eggs and they look at them for a few hours and try a few to see what they taste like. The eggs are tasty so they eat them all. A week later they lay some more eggs and they might eat them too.

Eventually one of the parents tries to care for the eggs and stops the other fish eating them. Low and behold, the eggs hatch but the baby fish wiggle about and the adults go "FOOD" and eat them. Live food wiggles about and baby angelfish wiggling on a leaf look absolutely delicious. The next couple of batches usually get eaten too.

Finally the parents work out they shouldn't eat the eggs or newly hatched fry and they start to look after them. The eggs hatch and fry become free swimming. Then everyone else in the tank tries to eat the babies. The adult fish try to chase the other fish away but over the next few days most if not all the fry get eaten.

Eventually most prs work it out and manage to keep some of the fry alive. If you are trying to breed angelfish, it is a good idea to house them in their own tank or put a divider in the tank to stop the other fish getting the babies.

 

[TheVeilTaleAngelMaster]

Wow... So they are definitely not wild. But they protected and cleaned the eggs till the 5th day. But what really concerned me was that after the eggs were gone the female attacked the male repeatedly for about 6 hours. After that time, they both acted normally and protected there side of the tank. Thanks again for all the info!