Wednesday, October 3, 2012

John and Christie - Dedicated Lovers

John and Christie McFish proved to be dedicated lovers.

Most angelfish will select their mate when they are juveniles. They mate for life and often live to be 10 years old under the right conditions.

John McFish is a silver angel. He is currently about two years old and about eight inches tall.

Christie McFish (now sadly, deceased) was a smoky leopard angel and petite; fully grown, she was about five inches tall.

They were the first to lay eggs.

They choose the filter that plunged about ten inches deep into the aquarium. It was surrounded by vegetation, which made it more easily defendable.

The female moves along the vertical surface, laying her eggs.

The male follows behind and fertilizes them.

They lay anywhere from two hundred to six hundred eggs. I was to find out eggs have a very high mortality rate, which is why they lay so many. If they are not actively raising their fry, they will lay eggs about every two weeks.

In this picture, John and Christy are guarding their eggs on the filter.