How to Remove Angelfish Eggs From a Tank

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Having your angelfish lay eggs will be a very exciting situation. Two of your angelfish formed a pair and they’re finally ready to go through with the mating process.

Your hope is that you will be able to see the eggs hatch. This will give you a chance to have even more angelfish in your aquarium.

If you’ve learned a little bit about breeding angelfish, then you’ll likely know that things don’t always go so easily. When you’re dealing with a young pair, it’s possible that they won’t do such a great job of caring for their eggs or the fry once they hatch.

In this situation, it might be better to remove the eggs from the tank and care for them yourself. How can you remove eggs from a tank, though?

Below, you’ll learn a little bit about how you can remove angelfish eggs from a tank. This should help you if you wish to take care of the eggs yourself so that the angelfish fry will hatch.

Removing Angelfish Eggs From a Tank Is Difficult

Removing angelfish eggs from a tank safely is going to be somewhat difficult. Some angelfish enthusiasts have described trying to move the eggs from the tank as “nearly impossible” in the past.

This might be overstating things a bit, but it’s definitely not something that is incredibly simple to do. The eggs stick to the surface of whatever they have been laid on.

For example, an angelfish might lay its eggs in a bad spot in the tank. Perhaps it lays the egg near the filter, and you wind up being worried that the eggs will get sucked in.

You want to move the eggs out of the tank so that you can potentially take care of them. It isn’t going to be easy to do this, but there are some options.

One of the simplest options would be to remove the filter and try to place it in a separate tank. Otherwise, removing the eggs from the filter without damaging them would be quite hard.

If the angelfish lays eggs on the aquarium’s glass, then getting the eggs off will be almost hopeless. There won’t be much that you can do at that point.

When eggs are laid on something such as a plant, that’s going to be easier to deal with. You have options because you could simply move the plant to a new tank.

It also should be possible to clip a big leaf off of the plant to move the eggs. Angelfish often choose to lay eggs directly on the surface of large leaves.

Use Breeding Slates

Using breeding slates will likely be the best thing that you can do. These are inserts that you can place in the tank that will be appealing to the angelfish.

Breeding slates are a good spot where the angelfish can lay their eggs. You can place multiple breeding slates in the tank to encourage the female angelfish to lay its eggs on one of the slates.

Of course, there isn’t a guarantee that the angelfish will use the slates. The angelfish might frustrate you by laying its eggs on the side of the glass tank.

However, there’s a good chance that the breeding slates will help. They’re designed to be easily removable, and you can just grab onto them and then move the eggs to another tank.

Note that these are sometimes referred to as breeding cones. They’re easy to find at various pet stores that sell fish tank equipment, and you can also purchase them online.

Is Moving the Angelfish Eggs a Good Idea?

Before moving forward, it’s a good idea to ask yourself whether moving the angelfish eggs will be a good idea. If you don’t have a lot of experience with breeding fish, then this might not be a good situation.

Caring for angelfish eggs can be a bit tough for a beginner. You have to keep the eggs clean and safe when they aren’t being cared for by the parents.

It’s also necessary to provide the eggs with oxygen. Although this part isn’t necessarily difficult, it’s still easy to make mistakes.

If you consider yourself to be a novice, then it’d probably be simpler to allow the parent fish to care for the eggs. The angelfish parents should defend the eggs, and they’ll also continue to protect the fry once they have hatched.

This is assuming that everything goes as planned, of course. There are also situations where the parent fish don’t do a good job.

You might have heard stories of the angelfish eating their own eggs, and sometimes angelfish will even eat the fry. This seems like a good reason to remove the eggs from the tank, but it doesn’t always go this badly.

An experienced mating pair will do a better job of caring for the eggs than an inexperienced pair. As a mating pair keeps spawning, it’ll be easier for them to do a good job.

Also, angelfish are more likely to eat the eggs and the fry when they’re stressed. Actions such as this are usually an irrational response to fear and sources of stress.

If you can keep the angelfish calm and care for them properly, then it’s likely that things will be fine. It might help to put the parent fish in a separate breeding tank with the eggs instead of keeping them in a community tank.

Angelfish can care for their eggs in a community tank, but they might have to worry more about protecting the eggs from the other fish. Placing the pair in a breeding tank should reduce the likelihood of the pair experiencing stress.

Final Thoughts

You now know that it’s possible to move angelfish eggs out of the tank. It’s not easy to get this done, though.

Honestly, it’d be better not to move them if they’re stuck to certain surfaces. You likely won’t be able to move the eggs out of the tank safely if they’re stuck to the glass of the fish tank.

If the eggs are on the leaf of a plant, then you can simply remove the plant along with the eggs. You have options to consider that can help.

Using breeding slates or breeding cones can make things a lot easier, too. This is highly recommended if you plan to remove the eggs and care for them yourself.

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