[Rometiklan]

I'm keeping a bunch of young angelfish in a 60 gallon tank. Three of them, 2 males and a female, have gotten together and started laying eggs on the filter attachment. They are each taking turns patrolling and keeping the other angels away. Has anyone experienced or even heard of this? In my 40 years of keeping fish, and all the angelfish literature I've ever read, this is the first I've even heard of an angel-threesome.

I'm already rearing 2 seperate spawns and running out of tank space so I'm probably going to leave the eggs and parents to their own devices. Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Nope, never had a threesome. Traditional coupling only. You figure out what I mean:bigsmile:

 

[onefishtwofish]

i did with angels. it was kind of cool. i female 2 males

 

[Rometiklan]

i did with angels. it was kind of cool. i female 2 males

Yeah, it was kind of cool to see, albeit a little odd. Never had that happen in 40 years of keeping angels. The three of them were very cooperative and the 2 males each took turns fertilizing the eggs and all took turns keeping the rest of the fish away. It was a medium spawn of maybe 500 or 600 eggs. Sadly, something happened overnight and the eggs have since disappeared. I should set up a tank exclusively for the 3 and see if they breed again. Thanks to all who replied.

 

[Hammer]

It is 2016 ...anything goes

That being said...I am curious what evolutionary advantage it is serving. Are the fish related? Did they jointly fertilize the batch?
Aside from sharing the parenting and guarding, in some fish species, the collateral rigours of the spawning process are associated with a greater mortality in the males than females. It's all the postering, fin flaring, fighting, and guarding.
Maybe, this is one version of the modern anglefish family. It does seem counter to the instinct of males pushing their genetics into future generations.