Angel or Devil?
Angels guarding their eggs
The Angel fish are spawning again. This is at least the third time this pair has laid eggs and guarded them for at least a couple days. Then, either they eat them or the Mollies eat them which kind of means they gave up the guarding. Life is not easy as a fish, it’s kind of amazing to me that any ever make it to adulthood.
dangerous beauty
They are fairly evil looking fish, with red eyes and a very aggressive temperament. They are hunters and they are good at it. It could be that they are the reason the Mollie population has gone down so much. I got them to keep the Mollies from overpopulating but didn’t think they would go after the adults. I’m still not sure but it is one of the possibilities.
Angel eggs on a leaf
The female lays the eggs on a stem or leaf and the male fertilizes them and then they both guard them. If an egg turns white it is not viable, either it didn’t get fertilized or something happened. If you look closely above (you can click to enlarge) you’ll see both the white eggs and many more pale yellow ones. The parents eat the white eggs and fan the remaining ones to keep the water moving over them – when they aren’t chasing other fish away.
If they hatch, they then get to chase the minute babies around and try and keep them together and guard them as well. It’s a thankless job in the cutthroat underwater world.
I seem to have had simlar jobs. But just in the past. My current job of doing nothing rquires no guarding whatsoever.
I was thinking about getting a pair of angels for our pond. We also have a lot of mollies int the pond. Do you recommend the mix? BTW—the Miracle Gro tablets worked great as fertilizer for the pond plants.
Pete
The Angels do well here in the pond, and they will keep down the Molly population because they prey on the fry. It’s a cruel world but otherwise the Mollies will breed to the point of starvation.
Good news about the Miracle Gro.
beautiful pix, thanks.
They are cichlids after all, and you know what that means: Aggressive!
I had to return all my angels to the fish store (for credit) because once they get to a certain size, they become killers.