The triangle-shaped, striped angelfish (scientific name: Pterophyllum scalar) are popular and attractive freshwater fish that make a nice addition to anyone’s home fish tank. Originating in South American river basins – particularly in the Amazon – angelfishangelfish thrive in fish tanks that emulate their southern homes: water should ideally be around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and the pH level should be kept at 7 or lower. As far as feeding the angelfish, they are carnivorous fish that in the wild feed on smaller fish and macroinvertebrates. In fish tanks, they will eat fish flake food but they do best when they have a variety of live, frozen, and flake foods.

Breeders will be happy to know that angelfish are relatively easy to breed – in fact, the fish are most content when they have the right conditions and the opportunity to breed. What follows below are tips and steps for breeding angelfish.

1. Angelfish Make Good Husbands and Wives

Angelfish are monogamous and they mate for life. Once an angelfish has chosen his or her partner, separating the pair for any reason, including death, will lead to a refusal of the remaining fish to breed. They are also loyal partners, protecting their mate from any perceived threats or other suitors.

The fish reach sexual maturity between six and twelve months of age. At three years of age, the spawning of the angelfish begins to decrease, and eventually ceases altogether.

2. Angelfish Don’t Make the Best Moms and Dads

Unfortunately for the angelfish, years of inbreeding has not had beneficial results for their parenting skills. Sometimes, the angelfish parents diligent moms and dads, mouthing and fanning the eggs, as well as removing any dead eggs from the bunch. But other angelfish have different ideas about their own eggs, viewing the eggs as a great mid-afternoon snack. Most professional breeders remove the eggs from the tank and hatch them away from the parents in a gallon jar of water.

3. Aquarium Conditions for Breeding Angelfish

For an angelfish pair to spawn, feed the angelfish a varied diet, clean the water in the tank, and warm the tank up a few degrees. This helps stimulate their instincts to spawn. Another trick to help get the fish going is to add a quart of water from another tank in which angelfish are currently breeding. As for size, try to use a 20 gallon (76 liter) tank.

Depending upon the health and the size of the female, she will lay between one hundred and twelve hundred eggs, and the male will follow behind her and fertilize the new eggs. Healthy fish in good spawning conditions will breed every two weeks, or even more frequently.

In the wild, angelfish lay their eggs on sword plant leaves. In artificial conditions, most professional breeders insert a piece of slate into the tank, leaning it at a thirty degree angle against the tank wall. Once the female has laid the eggs and the male has fertilized them, the majority of breeders remove the slate and place it into a jar of water, as aforementioned. To the jar of water, the breeders add methylene blue to keep fungus away from the baby fish.

4. A Nursery Full of Baby Fish

A few days after the eggs have been fertilized, the slate takes on the appearance of movement as the tadpole-like baby angelfish begin to hatch, still remaining attached to the slate. If the slate has not been relocated into a separate jar, take care to remove any snails or algae eaters (plecostomus fish), because the baby fish make very tasty meals for these creatures.

5. Feeding the Babies

When it comes to feeding the new angelfish, flake food is not enough. The main reason for this is evolution: baby fish are programmed to bite things that move and wiggle, and flake food does not move, and does not wiggle. This is the stage when most breeders lose baby fish, because they do not feed the babies live food. It is not unusual to lose as many as 90% of the baby angelfish at this stage if they are not properly fed.

Adding plants to the aquarium at this point will help the babies to snack between meals – microorganisms that grow on the aquarium plant leaves make good food for the baby angelfish.

The best baby food for angelfish is newly hatched brine shrimp. One-twentieth of a teaspoon of brine shrimp, several times per day (3 – 4 times), is the best way to feed the new angelfish.

Microworms are another type of live food that the baby angelfish will be happy to eat. These can be easier to create than the brine shrimp, and take up significantly less space than the former.

6. Angelfish Aren’t the Most Obedient Children

At three weeks, the angelfish start to act like human teenagers: they start picking on their parents. Unlike humans, the angelfish do this literally, sometimes aggressively nipping at their moms and dads. If the fry haven’t already been separated from their parents previously, now is the time to do it. At three weeks, it’s time for the young angelfish to strike out on their own and find their own place, otherwise their constant picking at mom and dad can cause wounds to open that could actually kill their parents.

7. The Kids Leave Home

What can be done with these adolescent angelfish? For amateur breeders, young fish can often be traded at a local fish store for store credit or even cash. For professional breeders, a healthy angelfish can fetch as much as $20.

For more information about Angelfish, please read Angelfish – Pterophyllum scalar

For more information about breeding Angelfish, please have a look to the following videos:

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