Thursday, July 18, 2013

When Can Angelfish Be Sold?

In my opinion, a lot of angelfish are sold when they are too young, leading to a higher mortality rate and a lot of grief among people who purchase them.


Technically, angelfish can be sold when they are "dime size", meaning their bodies are the size of a dime. I have seen many angelfish babies sold when their entire bodies - including those beautiful vertical fins - are the size of a dime. This is entirely too young for them to go through the stress of shipping and then acclimating to new water conditions - and then again when they go from the pet shop to the home.

I won't sell Vicki's Angels until their bodies are the size of a quarter. This allows me to keep them on freshly hatched brine shrimp until they can begin to be weaned onto dry flakes. I will begin the weaning process when they are about 4-6 weeks old, depending upon their size.

That means they will most likely go to the pet shop when they are between the age of 8 and 10 weeks.