Angelfish fry question

Congrats! Holding thumbs for them. What colour are yours?
Does anyone breed pure black veil tails?
Update:
Afternoon of day 3, yolk sacs are much smaller and Im starting to see eyes. Parents have moved babies back to the very point of the log just under the surface of the water. Looks like there's atleast 200! But I doubt they will all survive. When should I start hatching BBS?

 

Hi Mitchell,

All sounds good at your end. It will take at least another 24-36 hours before your fry will go free-swimming. However as soon as they go free-swimming you need to start feeding those freshly hatched bs, so you need to get them ready pretty soon. Actually if you have a large shoal of fry the chances are better that they will raise them as their instinct will be better to hold them together which is what they must do. You will have to squirt out the bs directly into the shoal of fry and the parents will be very aggressive towards you, so you must squirt out the bs quickly with some thin pipe like an airhose and then pull out the pipe quickly. Then I hope that your filter inlet is not too open so that they fry can get sucked in. If you can put a grid over it or a net or sponge that will help.

I breed black angels but because the black pigment formation takes a tremendous amount of energy you have to feed them much better and they are also much more aggressive towards one another. I have the veil gene in these angels, but I try not to breed pure veils but rather half veils, the pure veils are such poor swimmers and are always so lopsided that I feel sorry for them.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Will try and post some pics.

 

Ill starting hatching the bs, on Wednesday Ill start a second batch. The overflow has a sponge with large holes, they actually layed the eggs within 20cm of the overflow, but my sump pump is weak and therefore I doubt they will get caught in the overflow. Im also assuming that when they are free-swimming they will spend most of the time near the bottom of the aquarium.
I also like the half veils better, they have better finnage but dont have a long hanging tail that flops around.

 

Hi Mitchell,

Sorry mate, but the fry will swim just under the surface and an overflow will remove them in absolutely no time, so you will have to rig up a syphon or something. Because they have laid near the overflow they are also going to get violent if you fiddle near them. I have posted a pipe overflow somewhere on this forum, try to find it asap.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Can I ask a question.How long do I leave the fry in with the parent and how long does it take from eggs to wrigglers to free swimming?

 

You can basically remove the eggs or the fry at any stage, but I prefer to leave them with their parents for period a week or two or even longer so that the young will also have good parenting properties, but the choice is yours. If you remove the eggs, the parents will also lay eggs again within a week and you can soon have small angels all over your house in this way.....

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

ANGELFISH en masse!

Dirk has made good points to note

I'll offer A few tidbits ..Just quickly, you should have begun your artemia nauplii hatchery
Today would be good.
Oh, I see you have one on the go, and another for Wednesday?
It's OK..not a total waste..

I breed A few Angel pairs year just to keep my hand in on the process.
I breed whatever I feel challenged by, or want to rekindle the attraction for...sometimes In Black type or Breed...It's Blacks(Double Dark), other times it's Black Lace.
Currently I am working on Platinum Angels and want to return to larger Percentage Orange/Red background colour Koi Angels

...I prefer the Taller Finnage Variety with an extended tail as stronger breeders...
But a REALLY good Black Veil Angel is hard ot beat for a SHOW SPECIMEN if it's a strong fish.

I will look for pics of my current stock of European Bred Angels for you..if I can access pics from celphone...ummm:wondering:

Or just PM me your email address, it may just be abit easier that way.

Good luck with this and next broods..it's an exciting learning curve!:bigsmile:

 

I cant find your pipe siphon plans. Here's a picture of the fry near the overflow (sorry about the cellphone pic quality). The pump cycles a maximum of 250L a hour and the overflow has a large area. Is it really possible for them to get caught in this?

 

OK, you might just make it, I think, because I also see a sponge at the overflow. I will try to find my syphon plans but this may not work in this tank in any case (looks very complicated).

I think you must just see how things pan out and possibly modify the setup if all the fry are sucked in.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks, thats good news. Ill hold thumbs for them.

 

Update:
Afternoon day 4, Parents have finally moved the fry to a new location on the glass. They are spread out over the size of a soccer ball. The parents are more aggressive than ever now. The babies have used up their yolk sacs quickly and I think they'll be free-swimming by tommorrow afternoon. I still dont have any BBS yet, I think my BS eggs might have encountered moisture along the way. As a last attempt Im hatching some babies in low salt content RO water.

 

Hi Mitchell,

Do you use a hygrometer to adjust your salt concentration to the right density of 1.020. You pay so much for the bseggs yet so many folks don't buy a hygrometer for a couple of bucks and then it takes the guessing game out of hatching bseggs, this may be exactly the reason why they are not hatching.

You can try to contact Errol Scholtz, I think he is still in East London although he may now be in PE, he has bseggs from me that do hatch.

You will definitely need freshly hatched bs if you want to raise them.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Yes I do have a hygrometer but sites on the net advise anything from 1.014 to 1.026

 

Those are perhaps the outer boundaries, my experience is that you should be between 1.018 and 1.022, preferably 1.020 as I mentioned. If you use this density and your eggs do not hatch then you would know if they have died or not.

 

Excuse the ignorance but what is a hygrometer?

SAMB

 

Hi Molly,

A hygrometer measures the density of water. If salt is dissolved in water it makes the water more dense. The actual meter part of it actually looks like a thermometer and you allow it to float in the water of which you want to measure the density. You take the measurement by seeing how high it floats and you read the water level against a scale on the hygrometer.

When next you go to a LFS that sells marines ask them to show you a hygrometer. It is used in keeping marines all the time because you use it to find out if your water is getting to concentrated, too salty, because of evaporation and then you add distilled water to dilute the water to the correct density. If you do not the fishes and corals cannot cope with the too high salinity and will die.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Mitchell, I have an "instant bag" of artemia. Let me know via PM when we can arrange a drop off...

 

Thanks Dirk

 

HYDROMETER measures .......

:amazed:
NO NO NO NO NO!!!
Let's first look at the terminology incorrectly applied, and then we ALL learn, relearn and get to know the CORRECT terminology.
One letter changes everything!!

I'm sure it's an honest mistake by Dirk mentioning the WRONG Measuring instrument

See below... it's for ALL of our benefit on TASA.

Hey guys...
Before it goes too far, let us clear up an apparent, repeated mistake mentioned above.

If you used a Hygrometer...

Digital and Dial/Analogue Hygrosmeters
you would be measuring the WATER or MOISTURE CONTENT (or RELATIVE Humidity) of an enclosed environment..usually of air , or soil.
eg. Greenhouses, Farms,Cigar Humidors, Labs, Computer server rooms, Reptile/Bird egg and other Incubators may have one or other form of it.

What you mean to say, and should be recommending is a HYDROMETER!

"floating thermohydrometer" and "swing needle hydrometer"

This apparatus measures RELATIVE DENSITY or SPECIFIC GRAVITY of a fluid.
Specifically of interest to aquarists benefit , is the SALINITY Hydrometer.
This type is calibrated for use with seawater(natural or synthetic saltwater mixes), and it's salt content estimation.

Common , cheap LFS models are thermohydrometers, with an enclosed thermometer.

Specific gravity (SG), is a dimensionless measure of dissolved SALTS , relative to (pure) FreshWater.ie . no "units "
SG ranges between 1.000-1.030 for almost all practical purposes in aquaria

With Desalinated, De-Ionised, Distilled, Reverse Omosis water typically registering as 1,000
As the Water increases in Salt content it is now heavier, and that number will show as higher than freshwater.
SO natural seawater ranges 1.022-1.026 (avg 1.024)

As a ratio it is dimensionless

SALINITY can be calculated , or the Hydrometer would have a dual Calibrated Scale corresponding the SG with Salinity.

Typical readings are in ppt(parts per thousand) or the same as gram per Litre
Compare to above natural seawater SG 1.024 ~36ppt = 36g/L
AND if you want to get fancy, in conductivity, ~ 53mS/cm (milliSiemens per cm)

Last thing I want is for people to rush into a petshop and ASK for a HYGROMETR..and be handed something absolutely USELESS for the purpose at hand..which is to have a measure of salt content in a saline solution.

Or be stared at, when asking to SEE the Hygrometer..UMMM, Hydrometer:bigsmile:

Oh, Yes! This thread is about angel fish fry.
You have problems hatching Artemia cysts into nauplii for Angel Fry feed.

I hope you find this helpful ...:blink1: