Breeding The Potters Angelfish

[kandymann]

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Out of many angelfish pairs I have going at the moment, I have one of my favorites making babies. The potters angelfish, endemic to Hawaii is a fish species that has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. I have a 3" male and a 2" female. They have been together since April 2018. They are housed in a 150 gallon, 30" tall FOWLR aquarium with two other angelfish species (purple masked and multibar angelfish pairs).

I am going to attempt to culture these beauties and share my experiences and results with the Reef2Reef community. Please feel free to chime in and subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates, past and future projects of marine ornamental fish aquaculture.

Here's a quick video of the potters pair spawning right before the lights turn off for the night:


Here's a quick video of a baby Potters angel about 9 hours after it hatched from the egg (aka prolarvae):


Culturing trials will be under way shortly. Stay tuned for updates!

 

[Larry L]

This is great! What have you been doing to get/keep them in spawning condition?

I'd love to see someone doing captive bred multibar angels - they are a great fish, but a lot of people report the wild-caught ones don't ship well and then have trouble surviving through quarantine.

 

[Nate77]

This is awesome congrats!!

 

[kandymann]

This is great! What have you been doing to get/keep them in spawning condition?

I'd love to see someone doing captive bred multibar angels - they are a great fish, but a lot of people report the wild-caught ones don't ship well and then have trouble surviving through quarantine.

Feeding them a lot high quality foods such as nori, hikari mysis, and LRS fertility frenzy is very important. Also keeping water quality up.

Multibar angels are going to be cultured as well once they start spawning.

 

[4FordFamily]

Very cool, thanks for sharing! Would love to see these captive bred more frequently!

 

[HotRocks]

Following with interest!

 

[kandymann]

Just for fun, here's a pic of an egg minutes from hatching:

 

[S_OS]

I want to follow along

 

[Alfie424]

Have u bred bicolour angels aswell?

 

[pdisner]

Have u bred bicolour angels aswell?

The fish I breed are clown, gobies, cardinals. I’m in my second year of breeding and would love to know how you got yourself started. For example, did you design your own egg collector? I’d like to open chat with you some time. My FB blog that I post all my ventures is @PaulsPodsAZ
Check it out and let me know a source I can learn how to DIY egg collector.

 

[Alfie424]

It wasn’t me who bred the angels but what gobies did u breed ?

 

[3mm3]

Have to follow this! These have always been my favorite

 

[kandymann]

@pdisner yes I designed my own egg collector. It's very easy to make and practical for my tank. I have a 1-1/2" black PVC pipe that acts as my overflow. It's not a typical weir type of overflow that most aquariums utilize. I simply use 500 um mesh and wrap it around the 1-1/2" overflow and the eggs simply stick to the mesh. I turn off vortech pump and turn down the return flow so that the eggs gently collect around the overflow. It's been working great for me so far.

 

[declanisadog]

Very cool!! Potters and multibars are two of my favorites. Good luck, and I look forward to seeing your progress!

 

[kandymann]

Just a quick update. I am on trial #2 with these guys. I am on 5 days post hatch (DPH). My first trial got me to 8 DPH but I didn't use parvocalanus copepods and I only had around 50 prolarvae to start with. I used a smorgasbord of calanoid copepods (apocyclops and an unidentified species) and euterpina that I constantly have culturing. So now I am on trial #2 and I am exclusively using parvocalanus copepods nauplii as an initial feed. I had to ramp up parvo cultures for this endeavor. The potters angels are spawning every night without fail and fertility rates are much better than they were a month ago. I am getting 200-250 fertile eggs consistently right now when it was initially around 50-100 eggs.

 

[kandymann]

Have u bred bicolour angels aswell?

No. I love bicolors but I do not believe anyone has bred them in captivity yet to my knowledge.

 

[reefwiser]

I am sure you have contacted Karen Brittain on how to proceed with the fry.:) She is the master for pygmy angel fish breeding.:)

 

[kandymann]

I am sure you have contacted Karen Brittain on how to proceed with the fry.:) She is the master for pygmy angel fish breeding.:)

Yes, I have been in touch with her and I follow her successes. I have a lot of other friends who do this 'stuff'' too and have learned a lot from them.

 

[pdisner]

@pdisner yes I designed my own egg collector. It's very easy to make and practical for my tank. I have a 1-1/2" black PVC pipe that acts as my overflow. It's not a typical weir type of overflow that most aquariums utilize. I simply use 500 um mesh and wrap it around the 1-1/2" overflow and the eggs simply stick to the mesh. I turn off vortech pump and turn down the return flow so that the eggs gently collect around the overflow. It's been working great for me so far.

I’d love to start breeding some mandarins and I need to make an egg collector. Do u have a pic of yours I could see?
I breed blennies, amongst some clown, some gobies...a little of everything, even peppermint. I’ve been healing after being sick for awhile, stuck at home so a year ago I started just collecting,building etc. I’ve got a couple threads here in breeding forum. Check it out. Anyways, do you know a yth8ng about mandarins? They’re being aquacultured and seeing less wild. It’s a closely guarded secret I’m sure, but I’m digging for info. I need a subscription to an aquaculture journal! So here’s my blennies that just made it to juvenile.

 

[Surfzone]

Any updates on the angels?