I've tried several times to pull angelfish eggs myself and hatch them with no success so far.
They all seem to hatch fine, then by day 7 or 8 they all die or lie on the bottom of the tank with deformities. I've left the eggs with the parents this time and they have raised them better than I have so far.
I'm on day 7 today (about 4 hours off) and the fry are starting to make short swimming trips only to be grabbed by the parents and put back on the aquarium wall where its safe.
They moved the fry about 5 times all up this spawn, including twice yesterday!
My question. My brine shrimp will be ready later this arvo, when do I give the wrigglers their first meal and how much do u recommend feeding 110 angel fry?
Also, was thinking of leaving them with parents for a week in the 29g then trying to raise them myself in a 10g to start then a 55g grow out?
(tanks are all seeded and cycled and ready to go)
For starters, the fish having deformaties have nothing to do with your trying to hatch them out without the parents. This is genetics at work and nothing you can do about it. More than likely, the parents have eaten those deformed babies which is why you don't see them. Don't confuse the two situations.
(For me, if the pair is throwing that many deformed babies, you may want to set them each up with other mates and see if the ratio of good to bad fry changes.)
As for when to feed, once the fry become free swiming, I would remove the parents (as they become likely candidates to eat the fry). You could remove them now with no problems as well since the eggs have hatched. You should see a little yolk sac still on the underside of the fry so it is not recommended to feed them until this sac has been totally absorbed. (Use either a good set of eyes or a higher powered magnifying glass
) I generally start my brine shrimp on the day they become free swimming so that it hatches on the day that I need it. At 89-90 degrees, shrimp hatch in 24 hours. The suggestion to feed newly hatched brine means exactly that, NEWLY hatched (hatching within 12 hours of use.) If the shrimp are too old, they will be too big for the fry. As for the amount, you're going to have to experiment with that. You want to make enough that there is some leftovers after the fry have eaten. You'll see them as pink/orange areas on the floor of the tank. Every other day, you should be siphoning out these shrimp so that they don't foul the water. If they start to get fuzzy, you've left them in too long! As the fry start to get larger, you'll need 3 jars of shrimp going at the same time. Stagger them so that they hatch Morning, Midday, and evening. You should be feeding the fry 3 times per day (for maximun growth) so it's okay of you short change them food at one meal, the next meal is just a few hours away.
In my Angelfish hatchery, I left the fry in the hatching tank for 3 weeks before moving them. (I used 10 gal tanks for hatching out eggs.) They should look like miniature versions of their parents before you move them. When you move them from this point into the grow out tank, you want to use as much of the water they are in now and adding a small amount of new water. I added 10% of the water volume I moved the fish with for the first couple of days. After that, I added 10% of the water volume, daily until the tank was filled. From that point, I did a 10 % water change weekly. I'd also suggest you not put gravel in the grow out tank and use sponge filters. This way, you'd be able to keep the tank cleaner by siphoning out the leftover food and detritus on the bottom. (You should also not have gravel in the hatching tank for the same reason.)
So to sum up, the first 3 weeks, you want to keep the tank clean of excess food and do small water changes. (Just enough to replace the water you siphoned out doing the house cleaning.) Once you move them into the grow out tank, you want to do weekly water changes and feed heavily to get them growing. (This is the exact method I used to produce 10,000 baby angelfish per month for many years.)
If you would like more personalized help, feel free to PM me
