Technically that’s incorrect, as angelfish don’t copulate.
About a year ago, my angelfish laid eggs. And I was SO EXCITED. And then they all died. And then nothing happened for over a year. I even threw away the little net thing that separates the babies.
And then. As it turns out I do apparently have at least 1 male and 1 female fish. Just before we were leaving for a 3-day vacation, we noticed these little babies:
Majority of them are on the back of the leaf. And then the parents moved them.
The parents, by the way, are the yellow angelfish and the striped angelfish. They keep the black angelfish trapped behind some african root decor I have in the tank. If he comes out, he gets attacked. (She?)
Anyway, I was worried about them so I ran out and bought another little net thing for the babies. I couldn’t get them all, so I left half for the parents to take care of and managed to get the other half in the net. I bought the frozen baby brine shrimp and gave them a good feeding before I left. We came back 3 days later to no baby fish. I had been planning to blog about it, but was too sad.
Then they laid eggs again about 2 weeks later. And they hatched into tiny fry and this time I successfully managed to cut the entire leaf off and put the squirmy eggs into the net. (Because I did it at 4am while everyone was asleep- ever had your hand attacked by a protective mama angelfish? It’s weird.) And the parents proceeded to attack the net because they were pissed and wanted their babies. Well. If they wanted them so bad, they shouldn’t have eaten that last batch. And they lived for a few days, but every day, about half of them would die until there were none.
Sigh.
AND THEN! Over the weekend, they laid eggs again. This time I’m leaving them alone. Maybe they DO need their parents while they’re this young. Maybe I’ll put them into a net once they’re more fish-looking and not so micro-tadpole looking. Maybe once they start swimming around?
Or maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and they’ll all be gone, someone’s midnight snack. At this point, it’s whatever.
UPDATE: The tiny fish swam with their parents for a few days, each day the number was less and less. Two days ago, I decided to “rescue” a few of them and see if any did better in captivity than with their parents. I got about 8. Within hours I had 2. Maybe I overfed them? I have no idea. There were a few left yesterday morning but last night we were back to normal.
I have no idea what to do. But if they keep laying eggs like this I guess I’ll figure it out eventually!
