Mating Or Fighting?

[afishdude]

hi all, im not real informed on angelfish breeding. i have gotten two little angels for a 30g about a moth ago,
one is black marble, and one is silver with yellow on top.
for the last week or so, they have started locking lips, and kinda shaking at each other.
the marble will just sit there and wobble back and fourth, wile the yellow one is shaking in front of it, they are looking each other in the eyes all weird.

could i have luckily bought two angels that paired together???
i really don't want any eggs, because i don't have 200g worth of space to raise them in.
but then again i don't want them to fight each other

o yea, i also have one big angel that i have had for 6 months, he doesn't even look at them.

anyone got any ideas???


lol they just did it again while i was typing this, the yellow one kinda kissed the marble one right below the mouth.

 

[Tolak]

If they hang out together reasonably well between their little rounds of aggression it is pairing behavior. If they mainly go to different areas of the tank it's territorial aggression.

If the larger angel does look at them, and gets an aggressive charge from one or both they are pairing. There is a reason the larger fish doesn't want to make eye contact. A smaller pair will tear the snot out of a larger angel, keep a divider handy if you don't have another tank for the larger angel or the pair.

 

[afishdude]

john! i new you would post.

they are always hanging around each other.
i do have a divider if some aggression happens.


when will they become big enough to spawn?
and what could i posably use for grow out tanks for fry? i kinda wanna try to raise them.

 

[Tolak]

It's more age than size. I've seen them spawn as young as 8 months of age. My latest fav for growout is the large Rubbermaid agricultural tubs. A 150 gallon is less than $120 new around here. Seal the gaskets & plug with petroleum jelly, just like the seals on a canister filter.

I found some used for $70 each, I've heard you can find used ones at horse auctions. I lucked out when a not so local breeder shut down.