My Angels have Spawned... and messed up my system

OK... so if you go and read my thread:

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=1602 you will know that I set up my 3rd tank today as a quarantine tank for my 4 new female Bettas (Bought for my 40litre betta tank) and 4 guppy's (bought for my community tank).

In another thread Vee and Zaf assured me that my angels (6 of them) who are apporx 6 months, give or take 2-3 months, had a 87% chance of spawning soon... some statistics they gave me.

This evening, I noticed a plant leaf covered in eggs, and 2 of my Angels guarding and protecting the leaf very well. They were actually chasing anything that even looked like it was coming closer... they even darted at another leaf the swayed too close. My other angels were all tucked up in the corners of the tank... looking very stressed out. If was very interesting watching the 2 parent flap their fins over the leaf as well.. I'm guessing this is either to give fresh water or cool the eggs down. (I'm sure Zaf and Vee will give us the reason).

Anyway... the stupid angels laid on a leaf in the centre of the tank, so they thought it was their duty to take over the entire tank... and the rest of the fish were being bitten and chased rather badly.

So I made an "executive" decision... either based on feeling sad for the rest of my community, or based on the idea of having a hundred odd angels swimming around the place, and I put the 4 Betta's and 4 guppies straight into the community tank, and moved the egg laiden leaf into my quarantine tank. I didn't bother moving the parents across, cause from what I've read... they will more than likely eat these eggs.

So Ya... I'm a little excited that the angels have survived long enough to spawn. I'm excited that my water is considered good enough for the angels to spawn... I'm holding thumbs that the eggs will hatch into little fry... but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

vee/Zaf, any idea how long the eggs will take? At what point could I consider it "over" and can remove the left over eggs? And the next question... Brine shrimp and that stuff ain't readily available from our LPS's here in Jozi... I've tried when I had guppy and sword fry... what else could I feed them? Is "liquifry" any good? (I raised my guppies and swords on that.)

 

Firstly Congrats,

If memory serves me correct i think if the eggs have turned white it means that they are no good. Thats one type of indication.

Liquifry will work, but in my opinion brineshrimp is better. The fry see the brine shrimp squiggling around and instinctively give chase and eat them( this means less wastage). Im sure someone will have stock of brineshrimp up there in Jhb

 

Hey Zoom you gotta love our fishy friends always messing up our plans like that

Let's deal with the eggs you moved first:- Put an airstone in the tank with the eggs, the bubbles should move over the eggs but not touch them. The flow should also not be too strong. Basically what you want to do is aerate the eggs (that's what the parents were doing when they were flapping their fins over the eggs). This is to provide water flow over the eggs. If there is no movement in the tank where the eggs are already chances are they won't make it anyway You'll also want to add an anti-fungal medication to that tank to try and stop the eggs getting fungus. Those eggs that are white were not fertilized so you want to remove them if by using an eye-dropper or else they will infect the other eggs with fungus.

Let's assume that the eggs aren't already fungus infected though (but they probably are by now) - The eggs will hatch within about 2 days depending on water temperature and become wrigglers. DON'T FEED THEM YET - they will eat off their egg yolk for about 5 days when they'll become free swimming. Once they are ALL free swimming you can start feeding them. First prize would be BBS, but as you stated you don't have any - another option would be the liquifry food but your survival rate will not be as good.

Those angels will most likely be laying eggs in the next 2-3 weeks again. If you do want to breed with them, move them into a separate tank now. Or move that plant with the large leaves to a corner of the community tank somewhere so that there will be less chance of major spats between the other tank mates should they spawn again.
If they do lay again then it is easier to put a divider in the tank to protect the other fish.

 

See :brineshrimp.co.za for more details on how to hatch the eggs and where to get some. Or get some of the best brine shrimp eggs from Prof Dirk.
You must have an airstone about 3-5cm from the egg-laden leave, in order to supply a fresh water flow over the eggs - don't let the bubbles touch the eggs. Some eggs will turn white = infertile, and normally the parents will remove these. Hope you have some Metheline Blue in the water, to prevent fungus. The eggs will hatch in 3to 4 days- depending on water temp (28 C) and the time when they were laid.
When they hatch, they are called wrigglers, because it look like a ball of wriggling brown jelly -start the brine shrimp hatchery as these wrigglers start to jump around/ jelly ball breacking apart, as they will soon be freeswimming and consume a lot of their energy. The best food is: Brineshrimp! Other foods could be used, butt can not give the fry the nutrition they need and some will turn stunted and will not grow into the best looking angels with "funny" fins.
Good luck
Gert.

 

Gert and Vee have said it all - congrats on the spawn
Your local LPS will probably sell BBS eggs in small containers.

 

Thanks guys... I'm off to the LPS quick to see if I can get BBS eggs, and an fungicide... If these eggs don't make it, at least I'm prepared for the next batch.

 

Funny how one can get the same advice, in diffrent words, from two angel breeding members...
As long as you try to breed good quality fish and not "mini-me's" or "ninja-turtles"- as Prof Dirk, would call them!
Good luck!
Gert.

 

Pictures

OK... So I am always one of the guys screeming for photos... so I came to the conclusion that my thread is useless without a picture or 3.

I think this is the female. She was guarding the eggs VERY carefully... and was taking on Angels twice her size.





This is what I believe to be the male.... He was twice the females size... and was also very protective over the eggs.





And this is where the eggs are now. I cut the leaf off the main plant and slipped it into the white base (from an old plastic plant.) I then folded the base of the leaf over, so as to stop it from dislodging itself and floating to the top. I then put a rock over it as well as the tubing of the airstone to secure all in place.

Airestone is blowing bubble about 5mm away from the leaf.... refreshing the water supply. In background you can see the cheap air-filter I am using to filter the water. (This tank was SUPPOSE to be a quarantine tank / grow out tank.... so filtration wasn't a huge necessity. If anyone feels that that filter is not suitable, please let me know, and I can make another plan. (Not sure if a sponge filter would be better suited?)

 

Zoom, nice photos there. Yes, a sponge filter will work better, as you can see, the new free swimming fry will end up with the debris on the filter, or worse- in it!

 

Thanks Gert. I didn't think of that. WIll get one during the week as soon as I see some wrigglers.