Angelfish laying eggs
Amber, As opposed to the wild silver/black-stripe (natural) color pattern which, by its very definition, is fairly constant it will be noted (as you’ve already indicated) that Koi Angelfish’s color pattern can vary considerably even within a given spawn. Your Koi Angel will not develop any more black spots, but you should know that his genes may carry a much wider variation of black spotting in his color pattern than what he is displaying.
Many of the man-made strains of Angels will not change shades of their color patterns in response to their moods. Any coloring developed into such a strain either overshadows (hides) or effectively eliminates the natural coloration’s chromatophores, disabling the fish’s skin’s ability to change toning/shading.
With having only two Koi Angels originally and thus having only a 50% chance of each of these two fish developing as opposite sexes, you had an equal chance that both of these Koi Angels may have developed into males instead of just this one; sorry to hear the prettier one didn’t make it.
As for “cross-breeding” (and I’m assuming you’re referring to your two present Angelfish), no breeding these two types of Angels is not necessarily a “bad breeder” move in fish breeding situations such as this, but before being erroneously understood it should first be noted that we are not talking about two different species here but instead ONE species. Generally, cross breeding of two different species is to be frowned upon, often resulting in infertile hybrids when it is accomplished, and most often being a detraction/depreciation of the two different species involved (its hard to improve on mother nature), rather than being an improvement.
Getting back now to “cross-breeding” two different color varieties of the same species, such as with your Angelfish pair, while most better Angelfish breeders will breed only within a certain color strain to retain these genes (possibly improving upon them whenever its possible) and to raise fry developing into 100% this same strain, These same breeders will have to out-cross after no more than 5 generations of the same strain to prevent the weakening effects of inbreeding — as one way to strengthen the strain and add vigor.
The other way these breeders will restore vigor to their strain is to line breed, i.e., breed two separate lines (cousins) of the same strain each for 5 generations and then cross these two individual and very similar (yet somewhat distantly related) strains. Sooner or later though, an out-cross will have to be performed so as not to loss fecundity of the strain — and such an out-cross would preferably be to a wild or wild-type of the species — such as what your female is! Without knowing your female Angel’s genetic background though, I have no way of knowing what other genes she may be carrying (if part of her genetic make-up is different). Still, such a “cross” as you are referring to, with your silver Angelfish and Koi, would be preferable to any other in maintaining the Koi strain down the line.
Getting back to your original grouping of three Angelfish, two Koi Angels and a Silver (wild-type), if the lost Koi Angelfish had been a female — if all three Angelfish were allowed to be raised together as you would most probably have done, you should know that the inevitable outcome would be the SAME. Your present male Koi Angelfish would have paired up with you Silver Angelfish. It is the INNATE INSTINCT for any Angelfish to preferably first pair up with the WILD-TYPE Angelfish whenever that opportunity presents itself — WITHOUT EXCEPTION.
The 55 gallon tank would be an excellent size to raise Angelfish in. The challenge (largely uncontrollable by you) is to get to the point where the parents won’t eat the eggs or fry. Beyond that, we’d be pleased to tell you how to raise the fry properly. At the moment, the best grades of brine shrimp eggs are temporarily unavailable from many established brine srimp handlers, but a good grade is still quite available and most adequate. You’ll note my previous post on this whereby you can’t always expect great quality brine shrimp eggs from a LFS, which is why you’d need to purchase them direcrtly from a supplier (such as Sanders or Brine Shrimp Direct, both in Utah). Except for the nominal shipping cost, you’ll find a good savings when buying them that way, and a fresh 3.5 ounce can will yield you many hatches of baby brine shrimp; probably enough to raise at leasst a dozen spawns or more, since once the fry get to about 4 weeks old they’ll need to be switched to another type of food anyway. Ray
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
