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Hello all! This is my first post! I really hope the members here are more active and helpful then the other forums I've visited...here goes!

Like everyone says, my Angel pair have improved with every spawn. I had 8 freeswimmers that actually developed some markings, unfortunately they have disapeared. In their place I currently have innumerable wigglers! I don't think I've got the space to artificially raise them...not NOW. What can I do to give them the best chance possible with mom and dad??

The Tank:
30G high, heater, neutral gravel substrate, 2 proquatics 120 filters (only 1 is on, on low), a few struggling live plants, and a BIG upright hollow "log"

I discovered the fry when I went to clean it....MUCH overdue
Can I clean?? When??

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

"PARLEY?!? Damn to the depths of hell whatever mug thought of the name Parley!!!!!"

Any other fish in the tank? If so, what kind? Be aware that many will pose a danger to the fry, or will at least annoy the parents. Annoyed parents sometimes eat their young out of stress.

Lots of water changes will help the fry greatly. As long as you are careful to avoid sucking them up or crushing them, you can clean the tank and even do some gravel vacuuming at the same time. Small and frequent changes will put minimal stress on the fish but will help water quality at the same time. I would try to keep the siphon away from all of the angels, just to be on the safe side. By the way, what do you plan to feed the fry? Some foods make a mess and leftovers rot in the water, reversing the effect of all those water changes.

That should be the kind of help you're looking for. Welcome to the forums.

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Welcome to FP !

This is my first visit back in quite the while !

Angels are quite forgiving, your pair are already breeding, so that's half the battle. The remainder is feeding, water quality, and space to grow and hide. (if leaving in your community tank)

That's a small tank to raise an angel family with young, when they get to dime size you'll be needing another tank.
I have a breeding pair in a 40g. Notorious egg-eaters and I haven't done anything special to promote egg survival but can launch into that mode when needed. Just don't have the tank space as I'd want more tanks.

The fry in your tank are used to the current conditions so slowly increase the amount of water changed or frequency to keep nitrates down. Ideally change some every day.
Good luck

The Amazon Nut...

Thanks for the imput! The only thing in the tank are the angels. I was feeding the handful of free swimmers I had frozen BBS. I'm sure that is currently rotting in the bottom of the tank I will do some vaccuuming tomorrow, and see how it goes. I figure it may be easier while they're still wigglers.

DaMossMan, these pair were laying eggs 1 1/2 weeks after wrigglers first appeared!

"PARLEY?!? Damn to the depths of hell whatever mug thought of the name Parley!!!!!"

I'm pretty sure they won't got for frozen BBS, they need to be freshly hatched and alive. Set up a BBS hatchery, not that hard and will cost very little if you already have an air pump.

Actually they eat the frozen BBS, I sooooo don't have time for a hatchery. They're free swimming now. Mom and dad aren't doing so good at herding them, but boy are they defensive!!

"PARLEY?!? Damn to the depths of hell whatever mug thought of the name Parley!!!!!"

Try Hikari First Bites for egg-layers also if you'd like to change up the diet a bit Frozen bbs isn't a popular food choice for angels so I'm pretty curious as to how this works out for your fish.

Sounds like your pair are pretty active & good luck with your fry

The Amazon Nut...

On of the problems with commercially captive bred angelfish is that the eggs are removed from the parents to maximise yields, and raised artificially. While this is good from the standpoint of producing lots of angelfish for sale, it's bad from the point of view of reinforcing parental instinct.

In the wild, first time breeding angelfish have older adults to watch and copy. Which they do. You'd be surprised how much fishes can learn from watching each other, particularly intelligent ones such as angelfish. The trouble is, in an aquarium, all too often a breeding pair have no older adults to watch in order to graduate more quickly from the 'fumbling teenager' stage of behavioural development, and thus they have to learn the hard way. You're discovering this yourself with your pair of parents!

Once upon a time, however, it wasn't always like this. I had angelfish as a teenager, and they spawned and cared for their fry magnificently. But then the stock I obtained had been locally bred by a veteran aquarist before being sold to the LFS. And, of course, that was back in the late 70s, when here in the UK at least, angelfish breeding was still conducted in the trade by allowing parents to raise their fry to a decent size before the juveniles were parted from the parents. Some of the smarter aquarists of the older generation would set up an aquarium with a transparent divider of some sort, put a veteran breeding pair in one half, and a neophyte pair of prospective parents in the other. Thus, when the new prospective parents started breeding, they had a pair of 'old hands' to watch and copy. I could launch into a discussion of how the same approach works with humans, along with a suitably pyroclastic piece of fulmination about the mistakes of the past in this regard and their connection to 1960s town planners, but this isn't the place for that.




Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Hmmm possibly you could find a video of angels spawning and set it up on a TV next to the tank!

Believe it or not Bonny, that might prove to be a good idea if you don't have a veteran pair of fishes ... it would have to be an extra long play video though ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002