HELP! Found like a thousand Eggs!!!

Hello Good people of TASA

So last night i was looking at my tank... its a relatively small 100L tank... And i saw what i thought were bubbles on the back glass... I looked a bit closer... And would you believe it... There were like a thousand eggs all over a leaf of one of my plants!

Now this is the strange part... In the tank are only 6 fish... now its pretty clear that the one Angel has laid the Eggs coz she's constantly swimming over them and doing strange stuff with them... This angel is a Black stripped one... But now i only have one other angel, and its a Gold and white one... and i was told they cant breed? Or can they?

Iv only had the tank for 2 or 3 months, so could it have been pregnant at the LFS? i dono how long the "Term" of pregnancy is?

Now my biggest problem is what do i do now? Should i take all the other fish out and put them in another tank? or should i just leave them all? in the tank are a gold algae eater, a rainbow shark, some funny pink thing, and an african butterfly fish... once the eggs hatch, will i need to feed them? If so what?

Im freaking out a bit... i never expected to breed the little buggers! :smile1:

 

It's angels bud... she's fanning them to keep fungus and stuff from growing on them.

CONGRATS.

If you remove the other fish now you, you will more than likely stress the angels into eating the eggs. If this is their first spawn, they may very well eat them in any case. 100litres is fine for the hatching... but as soon as the fry are bigger, you will need a bigger grow out tank. I would suggest leaving everything as it is for now, and then read up on breeding angels. If you keen to give it a go... then prepare yourself.. take all the other tank mates out, and wait... it'll be about 2 to 3 weeks and you'll have eggs again. (As these guys reach full maturity, they breed like clockwork once every 10-14 days. (unless they looking after a spawn.)

 

(Answer) This is normal when you are becoming a father for the first time LOL :bigsmile:

 

So will they hatch???
So my Black and white, and Gold Angel are making the babies?
Should i still do gravel vacs? i dont want to do anything that will make them eat the eggs... i did the last gravel vac and water change on sunday...

 

No leave the gravel vac's for a while until you can at least see the babies and yes they are making babies :bigsmile:

 

Thanks for the replies guys!
Much appreciated!

@johan, What is BBS? And you say i should remove other fish, Zoom says i should leave them???

All this confusion...

 

It all depends, from my expierence my bala shark ate all my eggs and their is nothing the parents can do and the butterfly fish might eat the young when they are swimming around and BBS not to sure of all the letters but its brine shrimp eggs that you hatch its the bets food for fry

 

Hi and congrats.

Yes the angels will continue breeding with plenty of eggs so if they get eaten this time round, dont stress there will be more soon. At one stage mine were spawning every week to ten days but i now have fry in the tank so its been about 3 weeks.
BBS is Baby Brine Srimp. They can be purchased at most pet stores and are very easy to hatch. When you purchase the BBS eggs then get some marine aquarium salt.

To prepare the hatchery for BBS is very simple mix the aquarium salt as directed for 1 liter of water and place it in a cleaned ou 2L coke bottle. Add 1 tsp of eggs and put an airstone into the water. Between 24 to 48 hours they will hatch. If you turn the air off then it will settle. Old egg casings will float up and BBS will go down (they ar pinkish and will be swimming) syphen some out of the bottle using some spare air tube. After taking out the BBS remember to switch the air back on. If you have fine net or a stocking then put it over the glass containing some of the newly hatched BBS and pour the saltwater out and add fresh water to rinse them. (If you are unable to rince them then I put in a 10ml syringe with the BBS and salt water. 10ml is not so much when diluted in the entire tank, just remember the water changes) Then pour the BBS into the school of babies and they will start to eat them. I start the BBS hatchery when the fry start free swimming. This gives me until about day 7 when the BBS starts to hatch and by then the yolk sacks of the fry should be absorbed and they can then eat. The BBS only lasts for about 3 days so it is advised to start a second hatchery when the BBS hatch, repeating this over and over. This will give you a constant supply of BBS for the fry. After about 3 weeks I start to introduce Finely crushed flake food or the egg layers baby food so you will need BBS for about 3 weeks hence starting hatchery after hatchery.

I hope you can make sence of this and that it helps you.

Good luck and keep us posted.
Jonathan

 

Hey Jonathan,

Thanks a mil that helps loads!
A few questions... How long does it take for the eggs to hatch? should i get one of those breeding basket things to put in the tank? Do you have any other fish in the tank with your angels and fry?

 

Hi Tom,
If you look closely at the fish eggs they will develop small tails and start to wriggle after about 3 days and will remain on the spawned surface for another 2 days unless the parents move them to a new site which could also happen. They should start to swim after about 2 days from wriggeling(time to start with BBS), by now they will still have yolk sacks and feed off of that for the next 2 or so days. Usually around day seven they are completely free swiming and their yolk sacks will be absorberd and are ready to feed. I dont have any other fish in my breading tank other than the parents and fry. The breeding basket is not needed as the parents should rais their fry. You might experience the parents eating the first few batches as this happened to me. Send me an email to jverhave@Seanet.co.za and i can send you a few awesome links to look at.
Just a thought what colour are your eggs?
cheers

 

Congrat on the babies - I wish my angels would breed...

 

Thanks Danger!

The Eggs are a yellowish colour... After watching some Vids Johnathan sent me, im not sure which one is the mom anymore... all quite exciting tho!!

 

as long as they are not white,so they should be fertilised

 

[FONT=&quot]Ok so i dindnt think i would give you guys an update because it wasnt really neccessary... Over the weekend I was watching the fish eat the eggs, and I must admit I got pretty bummed... It wasn't long before all of them were gone... [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Then last night I fed them... and they were chilling at the back of the tank... So I took a closer look and as it turns out, they didn't eat the Eggs! they just moved them! So now I have LOADS of wrigglers! Its a bit inconvenient coz now I have to get moving on the BBS, But still AWESOME!!![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I thought they were all gone but the parents just moved them into a more "secure" home...
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But now im left with the dilema of what to do with all the fish???
[/FONT]

 

Time for MTS - Multiple Tank Syndrome, to kick in!
Move the other fish to a new home, or better, move the babies to a small feeding/rearing tank. Use water from the main tank, and a sponge filter. Do water changes also from the main tank.
Siphon the babies and water from the tank. I use a 1 foot tank, for the first few weeks, as it is easier to feed BBS-Baby Brine Shrimp, in a more concentrated area to the small baby angel fry.
Good Luck!
Gert.