Frequently Asked Questions about
Angelfish

What should I feed to get good angelfish growth and reproduction?

A varied diet of high quality foods should be your goal. A couple of the highest quality flakes you can get would be a good daily staple. Breeding fish need a higher fat content then most flakes provide. Angels Plus fish flakes have the fat content your breeding angelfish need. The addition of freeze-dried foods, like plankton, bloodworms, mysis, tubifex or brine shrimp are good supplements. Paste foods can be superior foods if you have the time to make them. Live foods are not necessary, but they will go a long way to providing superior angelfish growth and reproduction. We do not recommend live freshwater animals, unless they are cultured. The chance of introducing harmful parasites or bacteria is too great in our opinion. We specifically do not recommend live blackworms for many reasons. You will be hard pressed to avoid diseases if you feed them. Newly hatched artemia (baby brine shrimp), should be fed as a first food and continuously until the angelfish fry are 4-6 weeks old. Check out our hints for hatching brine shrimp eggs. Raising angelfish on newly hatched brine shrimp is a must for the first 3-4 weeks of their life, if quality is really important to you. Trust us, there are no artemia substitutes that works as well - none! We have experimented with everything and nothing comes close to working as well as the real thing.

What type of filtration should I give my new angelfish?

Angelfish are not streamlined enough to do well in tanks with a lot of current. We recommend sponge filters, undergravel filters, or bubble-up box filters. If you have a large tank and want to add a secondary undersized power filter, canister filter or fluidized bed filter, it will be okay as long as it is considered too small for that tank size.

What size tank can your sponge filter handle?

Filters are designed to handle bio-load, not a particular tank size. Although companies tend to rate their filters to tank size, this is incorrect. Filters are capable of containing a certain number of nitrifying bacteria that will consume a particular volume of ammonia and nitrites. A certain sized bio-load in a small tank will require the approximately the same filtration as the same bio-load in a large tank. However, since the tank walls and other items also contain nitrifying bacteria, the same bio-load in a smaller tank will require a slightly larger filter size then the large tank. To rate filters, try to compare volume of sponge used and the density of the sponge. Our opinion is that bio-filtration is typically not a limiting factor in most tanks. It is more important to get a filter with a good design. The best filters are ones that get the sponge close to the bottom of the tank, which will improve water movement to the filter and gas exchange at the surface. You also need a filter that small angelfish will not get trapped under. Our sponge filters handle this combination of factors better than any other, in our opinion.

Should the tank be bare or is gravel recommended?

Gravel is normal for show tanks, however it is not considered the best thing for breeding situations. Any tank with angelfish fry in it should have a bare bottom. Otherwise, the small food that fry need, will fall into the gravel where it can't be eaten and it will decompose, causing problems in the tank. It is best if bare bottom tanks are painted a dark color on the outside bottom of the tanks. Angelfish will feel much more secure and develop better color in a dark bottomed tank.

How many angelfish can I keep in a tank?

We have found that the primary factors that will determine allowable density for raising angelfish are pH, feeding frequency, feeding amount, type of food, water change frequency, water change quantity, temperature and angelfish type. As you can imagine with such a list, the variation that affects what you can get away with, is tremendous. The other greatly varying factor is the expectation of quality. Some will happily accept angelfish that others would cull in a heart beat. Potential angelfish breeding or show stock should be given the maximum amount of room. For angelfish used for these purposes, we'd recommend starting by giving any that are over dime-sized, at least 3 gallons per angelfish. If over quarter-size, give them at least 5 gallons per angelfish and over silver dollar-sized, try to give them 7 gallons per angelfish. Once they are mature and starting to breed, it is best if you can give them 10 gallons each.

Can I keep angelfish with discus?

This is a very controversial subject. Many people who are ardent supporters on one side of this subject have very limited experience mixing these two fish. We have kept thousands of them together, backing our beliefs with a lot of experience. In general, angelfish and discus will do fine together if you pay attention to details. They seldom have any interaction with each other. It is other things that can cause problems. Neither must have parasites before being put together. It helps if the discus are the first introduced to the tank with the angelfish being added later. Temperatures should ideally be kept in the lower to mid 80's. Large tanks are best, with a minimum of 10 gallons per adult fish.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Angels Plus

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