How to Tell Male from Female Angelfish? Teach You How to Accurately Identify Male and Female
Male fish: full forehead, very tall dorsal fin, and the fins are relatively long. During breeding, adult male angelfish can be seen to have a firm, slender genital papilla. In terms of body shape, the male fish looks larger and more squarely built than the female, with the upper and lower fins opening at a wider angle.
Female fish: the female's forehead and lower jaw are relatively smooth, and the belly of an adult female is somewhat rounder than that of the male. During the breeding season, the genital papilla can be seen to be relatively thick and round.
Angelfish is the freshwater angelfish. The male and female of the freshwater angelfish are difficult to distinguish, but they have their own habit of choosing a mate from a young age. Generally, freshwater angelfish always swim in pairs in the middle layer of the water, and the one at the back, which is slightly larger and has longer fins, is the male. When keeping this fish, if you find that a male and female approach each other, with their vents drooping and protruding, and they do not let other freshwater angelfish come near, this is a sign that they are about to spawn and breed, and they should be promptly netted out and placed in a pre-prepared spawning tank. For the spawning tank, a large aquarium should be chosen as far as possible; the water depth must not be less than 40CM, and the length and width should also take 80CM and 40CM as the minimum. The water quality should be the same as the fish-keeping water, except that the water temperature should be raised by another 1-3 degrees, that is, 27-29 degrees is ideal. Inside the spawning tank, an additional attachment site for the eggs should be prepared---a stainless steel sheet, frosted glass sheet, or plastic board will all do, placed at a 45-degree angle to the tank wall in the center of the water body, 20CM below the water surface.
After a pair of parent fish enters the spawning tank, they first do a cleaning job on the egg attachment site, and then the female will lay the first batch of eggs on it, and the male will immediately follow to fertilize them, repeating this several times until spawning is complete. The number of eggs laid is 200-400. After spawning, the male and female parent fish will use their pectoral fins to fan the water to supply oxygen to the fertilized eggs, while also preventing dirt from settling on the fertilized eggs. If there are whitened dead eggs and deposited dirt during this time, the parent fish can promptly remove them. With the care of the parent fish, the fry can hatch after 2 days, and they will still remain on the attachment site for about 1 week, during which the parent fish will continue to care for the fry as before. If any small fish fall from the attachment site, they will take the small fish into their mouths and spit them back to the original place. After 1 week, the small fish begin to swim around and look for food, and at this time some sifted small live fish food should be fed.
When breeding freshwater angelfish, it should also be noted that when the parent fish are caring for their offspring, they must never be startled, otherwise they will swallow the small fish. In addition, if the parent fish fight, temporarily net out the male and keep it separately, so as to avoid injury from the fighting.