Angels Pairing Up?

[The Mighty Boosh]

I bought 6 juvenile angel fish, in the hope of getting a pair.

4 with black stripes, 2 with mottled pattern. They are highly amusing fish but tend to squabble amongst themselves quite a lot (but never attack any of the other fish)

I've had them for probably 9 months now and I seem to have 2 dominant males who are both large and constantly sparring with each other.

Watching them this weekend, I was surprised (and delighted!) to see the largest dominant (mottled) male, and one of the smaller stripy ones appears to spend a lot of time together on one side of the tank, and when any of the others approached they both chased them away. And when any of the others squared up to the stripy in question, big guy came over and asserted himself in defence of her(?)

So, have I got a pair? If so how long should I leave the others in the tank with them? As soon as I know for sure I will take the others back to the shop (will they buy them from me? or expect to take them for free?).

Also, if these two do pair and breed what colour will the babies be and does it matter? I assumed that two stripys or the two mottled ones would pair up but this isnt the case!

 

[ox5477]

Just a heads up first, angels are new world cichlids, so posting in that section may help with any future angel questions (even though I could do without another angel topic posted in that section)

Anyways, because they are cichlids, they qill have territory fights like your fish have been doing. The two males will fight the most as they control territory and then that attracts the females.

If you are sure the two angels are paired, return the others before the two lay eggs and then problems may occur because they other fish get too close to the eggs and one ends up getting hurt or losing it's finniage.

There isn't an easy way to tell what color or pattern the fish will be. One of the parents may have recessive genes that neither shows and you could have a few like that. But, the majority will be either patterns of the parents, roughly 50/50 depending on which pattern is the more dominant gene

 

[Straydum]

it is possible and the chance is high i'd say, but you can't be for sure until spawning begins. whether the shop will buy back the angels is very dependant on the shop keeper. most shops dont give out cash for fishes and instead store credit which you can spend in their shop. as far as i know of, normal stripped angels are recessive against golds and even so this may not be always the case.

 

[The Mighty Boosh]

Yes I posted, and then wished I could move it to new world cichlids but didn't want to double post.

I will hold off seperating them until I'm certain that they are a pair, the only problem I have is that the 'female' is one of 4 very similar looking stripy's in the tank which makes it tricky...

As for them breeding, well I've got some reading up to do then but that would be nice

I'll ask the LFS for in store credit that would be fine for me

Thanks guys