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How To Increase Your Angelfish Fry Survival Rate!

Keeping angelfish is seeing a spike in popularity again so many people who already have angelfish in their aquariums are looking for ways to capitalize on the boom and increase the survival rates of their angelfish fry in a bid to make some money.

Over the last couple of months we have noticed a number of people reaching out and asking questions about how they are able to increase their angelfish fry survivable rate so we wanted to publish this dedicated article on the topic.

The easiest way to increase the survival rate of your angelfish fry is to try and breed them in a dedicated breeding tank away from other fish that will eat them.

In some situations, even the parent angelfish will eat their own fry so once the fry hatch, it is usually a good idea to remove the parents to let the angelfish fry thrive and grow free from predators.

This is not practical for everyone though due to budget and space constraints for a second breeding tank.

This is why a simple breeding box can be an excellent alternative due to it offering protection for your angelfish fry while having a low price tag making it the best all-round option for the majority of our readers looking to increase the survival rate of their angelfish fry.

Will Angelfish Fry Survive In A Community Tank?

It is unlikely that angelfish fry will survive in a community tank due to the other fish in the tank often seeing the fry as food.

Prior to the fry even hatching, most species of fish and snail will see the fertilized eggs as food too reducing the number of fry that actually hatch that in-turn has an additional knock on effect on reducing their survival rate.

You can try to add some temporary fake aquarium plants to your tank or some fish fry hideouts to your aquarium with both options being decent, budget friendly ways to increase the survival rate of your angelfish fry.

Although these methods do work, the main issue is that most of the yield loss of trying to breed your angelfish in a community tank will come from fish and snails eating the eggs rather than the actual fry.

Depending on the species of angelfish you keep in your tanks, they can spawn anywhere from 100 to 1000 eggs though so this can end up working to your favor if you are actively trying to breed your angelfish in a community tank.

A couple of females with a single male can often produce enough fertilized eggs that a large number of fry will hatch due to the sheer numbers of eggs being fertilized with this becoming a common tactic with fish breeders.

How To Increase Your Angelfish Fry Survival Rate!

There are a large number of threats to fertilized fish eggs and fry in community tanks that drastically reduce the potential survival rates for your angelfish fry.

If you have the budget available then setting up a separate breeding tank will always be the best option by far and offer you the best possible survival rates for your angelfish fry due to a lack of predators eating the eggs and fry.

Again, the specific species of angelfish that you keep will come into play for this one as the size of the angelfish and number of angelfish you are trying to breed will all come into play.

If you do want to take this path then a spare cheap 40 gallon breeding tank should be able to house at least one pair of angelfish to increase fry survival rates.

If you do have a smaller species of angelfish then you may be able to add one male and three females to the 40 gallon tank to maximise the survival rate.

We know that many of our readers are on a budget so a trusty breeding box can be the best option.

It is not as effective as dedicated breeding tank but it is considerably less expensive while still allowing you to put your angelfish fry into it.

There are a wide range of different sized breeding boxes on the market to meet the needs of almost all tank setups too so you should always be able to find something to meet your needs.

How Long Does It Take For Angelfish Fry To Grow?

Most species of angelfish fry will become free-swimming within two weeks of hatching from their egg and start to develop the signature angelfish look around this point.

The growth rate of the fry from this point will depend on the specific species of angelfish but the fry do tend to be vulnerable to predators until the eight to twelve week point depending on the other fish in your tank.

Keep in mind, these estimates are for tanks with ideal conditions and optimal levels of nutrition so the fry can grow at the fastest rate possible.

The smaller species of angelfish can still be vulnerable to larger fish in their tanks as baby fish due to their small size though so you should consider this before actively attempting to breed your angelfish as once they grow past the fry stage, there can still be issues with their survival rates.

Some species of angelfish can also be very sensitive to issues with their water parameters with this being able to stunt their growth rate.

Although the fry should grow to the same adult size as it otherwise would, problems cause by poor water parameters can drastically reduce the growth rate and keep the fish small making it more likely to be seen as a source of food for its tank mates.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over how you are able to increase your angelfish fry survival rate to an end. Although the odds are stacked against you in most community tank setups, we have covered a number of different strategies that you can deploy to try and help that as many of your angelfish fry will make it to adulthood as possible. You can easily double the survival rates of your fry using the tips above but you can get almost 100% survival rate if you setup a separate breeding tank with this usually being the better option for someone with a supplier in place to buy all of your baby angelfish from you as soon as they are ready.