Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The Parents

Yesterday I showed the latest batch of angelfish babies, who are going on seven weeks of age.

Here are their parents, who are permanent residents of the Honeymoon Suite:



Lindsay Buckingfish is the 10-inch tall, black marble angelfish with an orange crown. About half of the babies are black marbles.

Stevie Fishnick is the platinum angelfish, around 7-8 inches tall, with a golden crown. About half the babies are a variation of white marble, mixing the solid color of their mama with the marbling of their papa.

I have noticed as Emmie Lou gets older, her crown has gone from platinum to golden, like her mama's.

Lindsay and Stevie have laid eggs as often as three weeks apart. I've lost count of the number of clutches they have conceived.

They chose each other as mates when they were in the community tank. After laying eggs several times (which were promptly eaten by other fish in the tank) I moved them to their own, private tank. Angels can live to be 10 years old and they mate for life, often grieving themselves to death after the loss of a mate.