angel eggs!

[the Ents]

8O
Got home today and one of our swordplant leaves is covered with eggs!
they look like wee strings of pearls...
My golden marble veiltails are zealously playing guard duty. YEE HAA!

Saw 'em pairing off from the other two and going 'house hunting' til they seemed to really find one leaf in particular attractive, and then they spent some time chasing everybody else away. (since they chose a spot dead center against the back wall this effectively creates quite a 'no-fly-zone' for all but a few brave fish.)
We didn't think this would happen so fast!
We weren't sure if we was really seeing their genital papillae, but now after spawning, the reg veiltail's is much longer and the one on the x-tra long veil's is smaller.
neither looked preg - just well fed, like the others.
We hear we've got 36-48 hrs til fry hatch, and abour 5 days til they use up yolk-sac - then we have to kick it into high gear!

: who's the daddy? who's the mommy?
: what/how to feed little egg-layer fish.
(bred livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails b4 only)
: should we hold off on tank-cleaning 4 a while?
(this tank has a panaque - read poo-factory! - and we do a 50% gravel/water x weekly)

any and all advice appreciated....

Ahh, we gotta get a camera!


55G FW community
6.8pH
80F (up from 1 wk at 76F)
diet: freeze-dr bloodworms/froz bloodworms, flakes, live/dried br shrimp
parents are 3" not counting tail.
tankmates are: z danios, neon tetras, 2 bl mollies, 3 corys, 1 colisa lalia,1 sailfin placo, 1 panaque, and 2 other sibling angels

 

[Guest]

who's the daddy? who's the mommy?
: what/how to feed little egg-layer fish.
(bred livebearers like guppies, mollies, swordtails b4 only)
: should we hold off on tank-cleaning 4 a while?
(this tank has a panaque - read poo-factory! - and we do a 50% gravel/water x weekly)

I'm dealing with the exact same thing myself right now! In my case, mama is the one staying with the eggs and guarding them.

Your odds of raising any in the main tank are pretty low, unfortunately. I have tried to move the leaf with eggs to another tank and do it tah way, but they never hatched for me. This time I'm going to let nature take its course, see what happens.

From what I've read, once the yolk sac is used up you need to have baby brine shrimp on hand. brine shrimp eggs are available at most lfs', come with instructions on how to hacth them, very simple.

As for water changes, i really don't know. Educated guess would say, scale it back to 25%, and do not disturb mama and the eggs (or fry if/when you get them).

Remeber, I've never done this succesfully, so i could be completely, utterly wrong!

 

[the Ents]

RATS!
We got up this morning and they're gone.
Last nite, the long-fin(daddy) was trying to get in there whenever Mama's attention was diverted. He tried to gobble a few , but got vigorously chased away and chastised. So, he's the obvious culprit, but now they're still cleaning leaves, so maybe we'll get a 2nd shot. This time, we'll put in a divider...

guess we'll clean the tank today - sigh....

 

[Guest]

Well, that happens. Also, sometimes mama will eat them too, especially her first couple of spawns. (this is all from reading, no personal exp.)

Mine are still alright for now, we'll see in a couple days.

Also, from what i've read, once they start spawning, they'll usually do it again and again. Odds are good you'll have some more tries.

Ents, how many angels do you have?

My situation is kinda weird. As best I can tell I have 2 males and a female. I could have sworn the big black male was the dad when they spawned a month or so ago, this time it appears it's my smaller silver angel who is dad. They are supposed to form pairs, and stay paired up, but it appears I've got some sort of threesome going on!! Very confusing, cuz both males are tolerating the other, a bit of fin nipping, but no all out aggro. From what i've read, the male of the pair should beat the other one up pretty bad, even kill him. Not happenin here.

 

[the Ents]

we've got four, three of which are all roughly 3" in body length, and 1 small'un. "groucho" developed pop-eye during the initial Q-period, and didn't really eat for 2 wks after the other 3 moved into the big tank. so he's about and 1 1/2", but just as fiesty - complete accuracy in hunting, fully recovered, just smaller than his batch- mates.
they are all golden marble veils, 1 is a extra long-fin(daddy, we think).

were yours raised together? mine were and do a bit of fin-nipping also. rather cichlid-y of them!
what colour is your F?

 

[Guest]

Female is a Koi variety, pretty colors, short fins, real stocky 3" body. Silver is just silver and black, original wild colors i think2.5". Last, big man, black veil tail, real pretty3.5 ". all measurements are just body, fins are way bigger, esp. the Black.

One thing I've noticed, the koi and the black, just before the spawns have taken place, colors got really vibrant, with some irridescent blue mixed in here and there, pretty interesting.

 

[Guest]

We seem to be existing in a parrallel universe, Ents. Eggs all gone this morning, no idea who munched them up. Waaaah!

Perhaps on of these days I'll put the angels in my spare 20 high and see if they'll spawn there. I'm not really much into breeding, but after these few futile attempts, I wanna see what the babies would turn out like!

Ugg, the angels currently reside in my 90 heavily planted tank. Can't imagine the chaos trying to catch these guys would cause.

 

[jasonit]

My angels have recently started showing really nice metallic blue and green colors. I have noticed that the 2 largest have started these flinching contests that eventually turn to locking jaws and pushing each other around. Is this mating behavior or is it territorial? I would love to see some eggs!

 

[rthoman]

I have 4 angels and they have been pecking away at each other for a year now and no eggs!!

 

[the Ents]

ahh, jawlocking, the Look of Love...who knew angels liked it rough?!
Now that i think of it, last month my long-fin locked with the other of the 3 lg,
but s(he) broke off and hid, whereas this time the current mama held her own ground. We are calling her Mistress Cindy - for her mole marking

sorry about the eggs, Corvuscorax. We feel your pain.
But if they don't give up hope why should we? they wouldn't even try, if conditions weren't pretty right...i'd say that was a vote of confidence, angel-style.

both ours are still hanging as a pair, but the aggro is gone, as well as the plumbing.
we'll see what another another water-X does, as well as a nice fresh worm dinner.
Who else has angels?

 

[fishgal]

I have two black angels, I got them as babies and one day I came home and there was eggs!! ( I thougt their spawing habbits was fighting) What luck, that I ended up with a female and male! They have spawed 4 times now but with no luck! Everytime the eggs are liad, the next day they are gone. Don't know if they are eating them or the other tank mates are eating them. I'm thinking of a seperate tank just for my angels now because I would like to see some little ones. About every three weeks they lay eggs so eventually I hoping to have little angles. Any sugessions for sucsess?

 

[the Ents]

Bet they will do it again...mine are fighting with everybody now - i don't know who's gonna spawn with who!
But now the leaves on the plants are ripped up and no suitable ones are available. we put in a flat smooth rock, they seem to be guarding the back wall, so i bet that's the new site...my only worry is it's a bit near the filter intake, babies might not be strong enuf to stay out. mine ate their own eggs, becuz of the nerve factor, i think. good luck with the seperate tank - looks like you're in for MTS!
mine spawn after the 'rains' (a water-x, temp drop, and live food.)