Angelfish eggs do not develop
Among others, I have an angelfish pair in my freshwater community tank (250 liters). Roughly every fortnight (sometimes the intervals are slightly longer), they lay a large number of eggs - I think about 100 every time - on a plant leaf and guard this clutch. But after a day some of the eggs become white, and after 2 - 3 days, almost all of them are white and fall off. This occurred again and again with the 7 clutches so far, i.e. I could not raise one single angelfish baby. Another aquarist told me that the eggs possibly were not fertilized, either because I have two females or because the male does not fertilize them. The entire behavior of the pair during the spawning process, however, contradicts this view.
Hello,
it is possible that the eggs die due to unsuitable (especially: too hard!) water conditions, on the other hand the scenario described by you.
In this scenario, both variants are possible.
It is not possible to detect with the naked eye whether the male actually fertilized the eggs or if it only tried to.
It actually happens with angelfish that two females spawn together (they can even take turns!), in that case the one that does not spawn behaves like a male
In both cases the involved fish behave just the way you would expect from a "real" breeding pair!
As long as the genders are not really determined (i.e. by the look of the genital papilla) I consider both scenarios possible. The only thing one can be sure of at the moment is that at least one of the fish is a female.
Best regards
sera GmbH
Dr. Bodo Schnell