Angelfish breeding

[abcdefghi]

Within the past week I have had 2 pairs of angels spawn in my 125G. One pair have spawned 3 or 4 times now and are getting better at it (the make does not eat the eggs immediately) while this is the first time for the second pair.

At the moment, I do nothing with the eggs. So, overnight snails and corys get a snack. But, I am considering trying to raise some.

What would be a good size grow out tank for a single batch of fry? I don't plan to try and raise more than a single batch at a time. Would a 20G work? Once the fry are large enough to be rehomed they would be, so it's not a permanent home.

Any tips on raising them?

Thanks

 

[Becca]

Within the past week I have had 2 pairs of angels spawn in my 125G. One pair have spawned 3 or 4 times now and are getting better at it (the make does not eat the eggs immediately) while this is the first time for the second pair.

At the moment, I do nothing with the eggs. So, overnight snails and corys get a snack. But, I am considering trying to raise some.

What would be a good size grow out tank for a single batch of fry? I don't plan to try and raise more than a single batch at a time. Would a 20G work? Once the fry are large enough to be rehomed they would be, so it's not a permanent home.

Any tips on raising them?

Thanks

20 G is a good start but if you end up with a lot of them, you'll probably want a 40B.

 

[abcdefghi]

Thanks, thinking I might just go with a 40B from the start. Would rather have plenty of room than possibly have to buy another tank, slightly easier maintenance on the larger tank as well.

 

[Becca]

It will be harder to feed them in a 40B. I worked at a hatchery years ago and this is what we did.

All angel pairs were set up in 20 double highs (like 2 10 gallons stacked one on top of the other) with a tall, smooth piece of slate. When they spawned we put the slate into a 1 gallon glass jug/jar with a round airstone positioned at the bottom of the slate and a few drops of methylene blue (bottle will say how many drops per gallon). When the eggs first hatch, the wigglers will stay attached to the slate, but slowly begin to fall off. when they became free swimming, we'd move them to a 10 gallon and use a turkey baster and baby brine to feed them. The same turkey baster could be used to remove uneaten food. The 10 gallons were always on a slow drip with a sponge filter, so they got a constant, slow water change. This speeds growth but isn't necessary.

Once the babies get to a point where it's safe to net them (a little less than dime size), we'd move them to a bigger grow out. If it wasn't very many fry, the grow-out would be a 20, but if there were lots, or two tanks of the same type, we'd move them to a 40B.

 

[abcdefghi]

Thanks for the info, I do have a 10G I could use initially. The biggest issue with it though is shrimp are in that tank. But, I also have a breeder box I could hang over the side.

That would at least let me see how many fry make it and could help determine a grow out tank size.

 

[abcdefghi]

Sort of an update, not paid much attention to any of the spawns (last few weeks have been somewhat of a rollercoaster) but today I noticed that I have wrigglers. Was watching the parents for a minute and thought they were eating the wrigglers, then I realized what they were doing was catching ones that had fallen off the leaf and spitting them back onto the leaf. Pretty cool.

Going to have to seriously start to figure out what I plan to do now. Have an empty 10G that I may move the next batch of wrigglers into and look into finding a 20G or something for a grow out.

 

[Becca]

Don't move them until they're free-swimming.

 

[abcdefghi]

Just like that they are all gone... a bit of a shame, but not unexpected. The parents are not guarding any particular area either, so not looking like they have simply moved them.

The other pair just spawned on the opposite side of the tank today, so will see how that group fare.

 

[Hicgup]

What Becca said was spot on, with the caveat of how many tanks of what size you would need for grow out. I have one pair of Pinoy Paraiba Ghost Superveils that put down a nest of well over 500 eggs twice a month. In reality they are probably laying closer to 800+ eggs, with at least 95% hatching. The fry are cookie cutter beauties, and even culling aggressively for finnage (we are talking superveils here) in a few weeks I have 600 to 700 hundred babies that require a handful or 55's (I actually use a dozen 30's) to grow them out to quarters. If you can put a divider in your main tank, the pair would probably raise a hundred or so babies for you, if you pull the eggs and manage them well you could quickly end up with hundreds of peas from a single nest. Attached pics are a scoop from a 30 gallon growout that represent about a tenth of the population, never actually counted a whole batch, but I'd bet there is close to a hundred babies in that cup.