Hi everyone. I’m new to the forum so please bear with me!

I’m relatively new to keeping tropical fish and wanted some advice. I have approx 60L tank with a molly, a shark fish, a catfish, 2 finish with long thinks on them (whiskers?), 3 young angelfish and 2 big angelfish.

I woke up this morning and noticed white dots on the filter of the tank (I was actually going to clean the tank/filters as there’s algae building up because there’s so much light in my living room). Doing some research I realised these are eggs - it’s the first time it’s happened in about 8 months of having them; I’ve recently moved house and moved the fish in to a larger tank with more foliage, etc... it quickly became apparent that they are from the angelfish as both male and female are protecting that area of the tank - I would say the male is the most dominant in the tank as he’s usually a bit of a bully.

So the question is what should I do? I have a box that goes into the tank to separate them. There’s also a pump in the tank that runs constantly. Will they hatch and if so, how can I protect them from being eaten? Sorry - I’m sure this has been asked a million times before. There’s 2 filters in the tank running also if that makes a difference. I’ve attached some pictures.

Thanks in advance!

To address the Angelfish issue first, if the eggs stay white they are infertile and won't hatch. Fertile eggs change to an amber colour withing around 24 hours. Even if they are fertile, the chances are that they will be eaten by the other fish in the tank or by the parents either before or soon after they hatch. A breeding box in a 60 litre isn't adequate to raise angel fry in as the tank is much too small for the fish you have in there. You need to upgrade to at least 200 litres and approximately 4 feet long to house those fish, to be honest, and with a breeding pair in there, you may have severe problems with aggression from them towards the other fish.

Hi. Thanks for your help. Sorry it is 160L not 60L! If any do turn amber is there anything I can do? We’ve had the angel fish since we first got fish - the last tank became too small so we got a bigger one but they have never seemed interested in each other so it’s a bit of a surprise - we put 3 young angel fish in there last week so wondering if they changed the balance of the tank or something?

160L sounds a lot better! If the eggs are on the filter there's not a lot you can do. To raise them successfully you really need to either put the pair in a tank on their own to spawn or if they lay on something you can easily move like a leaf or a small rock, move that to another tank. Trying to remove the eggs from the filter would just damage them, unfortunately. The only other option is to use a divider in the tank and leave the parents and eggs on one side and the rest of the fish on the other, but that makes things quite cramped for everyone, plus there's no guarantee that the parents won't eat the eggs or fry themselves. You will need a second tank to grow any young to a decent size, and then you need to consider whether you can find homes for them as angel broods can easily be up to 100 youngsters.

Thanks. Well it looks as though there has been some success as some of the eggs or something have moved down to a rock (quite a big one unfortunately) and have little tiny tails? I’m not sure the parents will eat them as they seem very natural parents/protectors of them if that makes sense. I suppose I might just need to leave them and think about another tank at some point if we want them to breed. Just hoping that they don’t cause issues for other fish; I’ve seen them both chasing down fish together who got too close

If you can see tails, then they've hatched and are at the "wriggler" stage. They can't swim yet; that will take another couple of days. The parents have moved them (they may do this repeatedly).

Yeah they wriggling. There’s about 25 of them, they’ve moved them again. Do these little tykes have any chance of survival? Other fish seem to be keeping away to the other side of the tank now with parents guarding intently

Survival isn't likely longer term as when they're up and swimming it will be a lot harder for their parents to protect them. You may be lucky and find a few make it, but don't be surprised if they just gradually disappear.