Angel Fish Spawn

Hi All

When I got home today, around six o clock when I saw the angels going crazy around a sword-plant and after closer inspection I saw hundreds of eggs on the leave. I clip the leave of the plant due to other fish (loaches) seeing the eggs as a midnight snack and moved them into a 30 liter tank which had been housing the Siamese fighter ( moved to another tank ). Any way is there anything I should do from here?

Regards
Peter

 

yes. Add methelyne blue or hydrogen peroxide to the water to prevent fungal growth. Amounts to add will vary depending on strength of solution. Add an airstone with moderate air flow close to eggs to keep fresh water moving. Wait until they hatch. Get some brine shrimp eggs and start hatching them in 36 to 48 hrs. When free swimming this will be the only food the fry will be able to eat.

 

Close up your filters inlet with foam or a spunge. If there is a way for these fish to die they will find it.

 

I would suggest you to get a 100litre tank, and put the angels in there with a filter sponge. Zafgak and Veegal have been breeding angels for years, and have never successfully raised the fry by removing the eggs. The parents perfom a VITAL role in fanning and cleaning the eggs.

After you have moved them, they will spawn within another 14 to 21 days. Depends on how long it takes them to settle down in the new tank.

 

I currently have 3 sets of baby angels.
1st set: 4/7 - removed wrigglers from parents
2nd set: 14/7- same pair as above - 10 days
3rd set: removed eggs on pot, from another pair of parents - wrigglers today!
My first pair of angels, bread in 1975! and looked after their fry in a community tank!
I don't always have lots of spare time, but feel free to ask!
Gert.

 

Just a quick update

The eggs got fungus on them so they had to be thrown out. I cleaned out a three foot tank that I had and put the pair in there and a flat rock hoping they will lay their eggs on there soon.

Regards
Peter

 

Could be that with all the distraction in the community set up that the eggs were never fertilized. If you feed the pair properly and they have a happy home, they can spawn every 9 to 14 days. You can use the time till then to get yourself sorted out for fry food and grow out space. An Angel spawn can need up to 500l and more to get to selling size quickly.

 

Just another update.I have put them back into the main community tank. The female laid eggs again but alas the male started eating them.Hopefully the will spawn again soon. I will start feeding them a more varied diet. Hopefully that will stop the male eating the eggs.

Regards
Peter

 

Age might be a problem Peter. Young male's can eat their eggs out of lack of experience. Unfortunately you also get males/females that eat their eggs/fry forever. Depending on their age I would give it another try or two, and if they eat the eggs again, either remove and hatch eggs seperately, or try find new partner for the female. I read Zoom's post above, but I on the other hand have never had angels that raised their fry successfully. Unfortunately commercial Angel's are bred in large quantities and have mostly lost their parental instinct. You wont easily fix that when its been bred out over generations.

 

Thanks Marco

This is actually the first time that the male has eaten the eggs. Maybe that he was hungry. As stated in my above post, I am going to feed him a more varied diet maybe that will solve the problem.

Regards
Peter

 

Hope it works. Its always better, I think, in aquaria to try and do things as natural as possible.

 

Found something interesting tonight. I was looking at the tank(betta tank) were I put the first eggs that were laid on the sword-plant. Anyway after the eggs had the fungus grow on they I threw them out. So it has been a week maybe more. After putting the betta back to his original place, I fed him as usual.

When feeding him tonight, I checked back with him to see that he is fine etc. While doing this I noticed, what looked like to me, was fry. Is saw a little wriggling thing going to the surface. Also while this happened the betta also saw this and he munched it. A few seconds later I saw another one. In my excitement I took out the betta once again to another tank. I spent a solid 10 minutes looking for the fry but could not find him. So it is just him and some new born apple snails. Will see what happens.

Regards
Peter

 

That's always exciting when you see that!