Baby Angelfish Care

You can leave the baby angelfish in the aquarium with the parents for up to three weeks. In most cases, adult angelfish will not eat their young, especially if they have already had a few litters. Keeping the fry with the parent pair will delay another reproductive cycle because the parents will be focused on the babies in the tank. The adults will eventually tire of the babies, but by then, it will be time to thin the herd, placing some of the fish in a different aquarium.

Living in a community tank is dangerous for baby angelfish. Most will get eaten by other fish, but there are a few things that you can do to increase their survival rates. As soon as you see eggs, place tall plants for the babies to hide and tall decor with tiny spaces where bigger fish cannot enter. You should offer different size brine shrimp several times a day to reduce the risk of the larger fish feeding on the baby angelfish.

For the first week, the angelfish fry will be stationary and will feed on their own yolks. Once the baby fish become free-swimming, you can start offering newly hatched brine shrimp or microworms. Offer small, frequent meals to keep food in their stomachs for most hours of the day. When the babies are about 3 to 4 weeks old, you can supplement the brine shrimp with crushed fish flakes, and when they are about 4 to 6 weeks old, you can switch the young fish completely to flakes and freeze-dried, frozen and pelleted foods.

When raising baby angelfish, consider adding live plants to the aquarium. The live plants will help keep the water clear, hinder algae growth and add oxygen to the water. Live plants also absorb waste in the water, which helps keep the ammonia levels down. Keeping live plants with your angelfish fry will help keep the water balanced, which will increase your survival rate and the overall health of the baby fish. Broadleaf aquatic plants and Amazon sword plants are hardy plants that are perfect for angelfish aquariums.