Sexing Angelfish And Determining If Swordtail Females Are Pregnant

[SabrinaTallman]

Hello everyone. I am looking for a bit of help. I've got two angelfish that I am trying to determine sexes for, I have a feeling both are female, but I've never sexed angelfish before.  Also I have been observing breeding activity between my swordtails, so I am wondering if they are pregnant. I have two females in with 1 male. I have just noticed the breeding activity between them, but they are noticeably larger than when I first got them. Also if they are does anyone have any tips on getting as many live young from them as possible. I want to separate them when they get closer to giving birth to ensure as many live young as possible, but I don't want to stress the girls out into aborting the pregnancies. I've had fish tanks growing up, but no pregnant fish. So I have a knowledge of daily care for fish, but no pregnancy or breeding knowledge. Other than being able to sex certain fish and observe breeding activity in certain breeds. So I'm basically looking for any helpful advise.

 

[Munroco]

not sure how large they are but going by the slope of the head it looks like the black one could be female and the silver male. This isn't 100% accurate and a lot less so in juvenile angels.

 

[betta fish]

I'm thinking the black angel is a male, not sure on the silver do you have a clearer pic? could be female... as for the swordtails are they in the same tank as the angels? if not you can let them give birth in the tank they are in as this will be much less stressful just put a large bunch of floating plants in there for the fry to hide in, they will continue to give birth every 3 weeks or so so you will soon have more fry than you know what to do with so don't worry

  both the females will be pregnant they usually square off just before giving birth and hide away.

 

[Akasha72]

sexing angelfish is virtually impossible as there is no real accurate way to tell until they breed. I do know a man that is very good and he gets it right 9 times out of 10 by examining the shape of the head and I've been trying to learn this method but it's not easy.
 
Going by his method I would say the black angel looks male but the other one I'm not certain of. 

 

[PepperjacksMama]

I'll wager a couple of girls, but as Akasha noted the best way to tell is when they spawn.
So I could be wrong.

 

[SabrinaTallman]

They are all in the same tank. I do have a breeding net (I intend to use it to raise babies in) and one of the breeder things that have the divider in it that the fry drop into. Is there a way I can move the swordtails into that and have them not abort their pregnancies (if they are pregnant) or stressing them out too much. What will they exhibit the closer they get to giving birth. I do have clearer pictures of them, but it won't let me upload them because they are too big.

 

[Akasha72]

putting any fish in a breeder box/net is incredibly stressful for them and we don't tend to recommend it. Raising fry in the net until too large to be eaten is fine though. When the female is ready to give birth she will start to 'square off' - by this what we mean is that she will start to get square looking appearance (when you see it you will see what I mean by that)  You may also be able to see her breeding tube open up ready for birth. The best thing to do is to hope you are around when she starts birthing and catch the fry as they appear. Swordtails are related the platies and so if you miss it this time there will be plenty more to come. Females can hold sperm for up to 6 months so even if you don't have a male she will continue to give birth for a while yet.
 
Another option is to give her a heavily planted area to give birth in. If there are densely planted areas in the tank she is likely to go into these area's when she's ready and it will allow for hiding area's for the fry.
 
As for your angels - try putting in a forum search for all angel related topics as I know we have threads with photo's on angel's differing breeding tubes. This is the only accurate way to sex them. Once you can see the difference between a male breeding tube and female one you'll be able to sex them accurately

 

[SabrinaTallman]

Can you point me in the right direction of angelfish forums. I have tried finding one, but no luck. I'm fairly new to keeping angels. Most of the ones I've had growing up have usually died on me, but these ones have hung with me, so I'm just wondering what I have.

 

[Akasha72]

I'm a member of this one http/www.uk-angelfishforum.org.uk/ they are U.K based but there are members from all over the globe. You'll find the guy there who'll have a go at sexing them. The forum is a little slow so it might take a little time to get replies but they are a very friendly bunch and the guy who runs the forum is really great in his knowledge. He breeds his angels and has some real beauties

 

[SabrinaTallman]

Thank you

 

[Akasha72]

no problem