(Original Title: Facts About the Queen Angelfish)
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| A Queen Angelfish (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Description
The adult Queen is blue with yellow rims on its scales. The ventral fins and pectoral fins are yellow, their lips and edging on their dorsal fins and anal fins are blue. They also have blue around each gill cover. They grow up to 45 cm in length.
The juvenile queen angelfish has blue bodies with yellow gills, tail, and lips. They have vertical bars ranging from light blue to white.
Geographical Location
The Queen angelfish is found in the Western Atlantic, from Florida to Brazil to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It is also found in the Eastern Central Atlantic, around Saint Peter and Saint Paul Islets. It is found at a depth of up to 70 meters. It can be found on stony reef corals and Porifera sponges.
Breeding
Adult Queen angelfish are found in pairs leading to suggest that they are monogamous fish. Reproduction occurs with the pair rising to the surface of the water and releasing sperm and egg in a cloud effect.
Females can release from 25-75 thousand eggs each evening, which equates to 10 million eggs in their spawning cycle. The eggs hatch in 15-20 hours as larvae. The larvae don't have eyes, fins or a gut. Within 48 hours the sac is absorbed and somewhat resembles a free-swimming fish. The larvae feed on plankton. 3-4 weeks later the juvenile will settle on the bottom and is around 15-20 mm in length.
Aquarium Requirements
The Queen angelfish is not recommended for a novice aquarist. It is sensitive to organic waste and because of that, it is hard to feed. It is a lively fish and swims in the open in the day.
The tank needs to be at least 150-200 gallons as it approaches its full size in length. It needs to have hiding spots for the Queen as well as other fish who may want to keep away from it. The Queen angelfish can be semi-aggressive and therefore should be added last to the aquarium. Two male Queen angelfish can lead to violence, but if it's to be kept with other angelfish they should all be introduced together. This is not a guarantee though that it won't be aggressive, however.
It is best to make sure the aquarium environment factors such as water temperature and pH-balance is stable before you introduce the Queen.
Queen angelfish respond well in a reef aquarium. They will nip at soft corals, clam mantles, and stony corals. It is best to train it to eat foods other than sponges, hydroids, tunicates, feather dusters because they can deplete the environment and it leads to malnutrition.
Food
In the sea, the Queen survives mainly on sponges. In an aquarium it is expensive to feed it only sponges so training it to eat other foods is advised. Serving up frozen meat foods like shrimp, squid and an angelfish formula which consists of sponges is beneficial. They also require algae on a daily basis. You can also feed them vegetables like spinach, aubergines, and zucchini. They require many small portions of food a day.
Although there are a few requirements to get your Queen angelfish to thrive in your aquarium, the beauty of these fish certainly outweigh any hardships you encounter along the way. Article Source: EzineArticles |
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