Angelfish swimmers feeding and questions

[Autumnsky]

Will they eat little worms off of the glass? I assume Planaria.

This is in my spare tank 35G, which I had had the Angels in before when they had babies, and swimmers, but due to the new filters (even with a bit of seeded media and) feeding tiny foods I was trying to avoid an ammonia spike and after the water change they seemed to eat the babies. The QT tank had new fish and fish that had been in there for awhile.

It has been running well for a while and I keep occasionally feeding the tank even though there are no fish to keep up the BB. I have the worms now a couple weeks after feeding a big bunch of pellets. I have had Planaria before and these are really tiny so maybe young ones, unless maybe could be something else. Haven't had enough time to really study them. Just curious.

This pair has eggs on their favorite leaf again and they are looking pretty nice like they could become wigglers pretty soon. They are in the 72G with the big Anubias leaf and eggs. Also with the other Angelfish pair and Cardinals and now Hatchet fish and 2 Rainbows and 2 Cories and a few Albino BN Plecos.

Last time we moved them over to the spare tank and it took a couple days for them to find the eggs again.

Not sure I have the ability make any BBS right now due to family concerns. But I have live Rotifers in the fridge and also Hikari First Bites. I feel bad to let them just die there in the community tank. The pair work so hard for their babies. I have also heard about using boiled egg, yolks. I have Ken's growth formula in case they get a little bigger as well.

So questions about the worms: food, or a danger for little fish (there are maybe a thousand, at least many hundred of them), I have Liquid Goat dewormer previously used in shrimp tank with RH snails if I needed to treat them?

And should I try and save the eggs/soon to be wigglers out of the 72G?

 

[Andy Sager]

Should you save them? That's up to you. If you do, I would put them into a freshly cleaned, sterilized and bare bottomed tank. With all that has gone on in that tank, who knows what could be left overs? Possible issues that a clean tank shouldn't have to deal with.
As for ammonia spikes, If you are having them, you are feeding too much. I use a brand new, unseasoned sponge in a tank of newly free swimming fry and don;t have ammonia issues. And I have a lot of babies in a tank. Daily small water changes and controlled feeding should prevent any spikes of any kind. If you are still unsure, using seachem's PRIME will detoxify any of the ammonia or nitrite buildups ( which you shouldn;t have if you are doing your water changes and controlling your feeding) that may happen.
You can also season the sponge in an ongoing tank so that once the fry become free swimming, there will be some BB in the sponge and can adapt their size accordingly to the bioload. From being layed to free swimming is about a week +/- which is more than enough time for a sponge to get inoculated in an existing tank.

Hope this helps

 

[Autumnsky]

Thanks Andy, you are a wealth of knowledge and support. I had pretty much followed the Wigglers thread before so feel the basics are there just wondering about what else I can do. I worked pretty hard to get worms started for the babies last time and seemed only to end up with a stinky jar of weird stuff in water. That is why I was interested about the worms in the tank now.

The pwc I did the first time around made the parents very mad and that is when they started eating the babies. I used the vac to suck out the messy stuff from the bare bottom of the tank, still bare bottom.

The 35G tank was clean and dry before the last time and a brand new sponge filter. I added the brand new AC 20-50 HOB, (with the sponge cover like I use for the shrimp tanks over the intake) just to make sure there was some good circulation of water. Didn't seem like enough with just the sponge filter.

Maybe I can fix a tube in the tank for pwc using a suction starter and not vac the bottom?

Prime is the only show in town.

You don't think the fish or babies would/should eat the worms?

 

[Andy Sager]

Considering that you don't know what kind of worms they are, NO, I wouldn't. As for circulation problems, if you don;t think you have enough, I would recommend a second or larger sponge filter and/or a larger air pump. I have never needed to add a HOB to a tank of babies. Sponges are just so much better and safer. Angels don;t really like heavy water movement so the fry aren't having problems from lack of water movement. What you will have problems with is oxygenation and that can be adjusted at the air pump.

As for feeding, if you can't hatch out your baby brine, try using frozen baby brine shrimp. That was what Bob McCoy said he used exclusively in the beginning.

Hope this helps

 

[Autumnsky]

Considering that you don't know what kind of worms they are, NO, I wouldn't. As for circulation problems, if you don;t think you have enough, I would recommend a second or larger sponge filter and/or a larger air pump. I have never needed to add a HOB to a tank of babies. Sponges are just so much better and safer. Angels don;t really like heavy water movement so the fry aren't having problems from lack of water movement. What you will have problems with is oxygenation and that can be adjusted at the air pump.

As for feeding, if you can't hatch out your baby brine, try using frozen baby brine shrimp. That was what Bob McCoy said he used exclusively in the beginning.

Hope this helps

Yes, quite a bit.

Now the second pair laid eggs tonight on a slate in the opposite side of the 72G. Would the 1st pair be able to possibly raise the 2nd pairs babies too, or would they likely try and kill them or something?

I might just try to raise them with the frozen bbs. I would love to have babies from these guys / both pairs actually. Then breed the best most orange babies of course. Ahhh fish dreaming, lol.

 

[Andy Sager]

Yes, quite a bit.

Now the second pair laid eggs tonight on a slate in the opposite side of the 72G. Would the 1st pair be able to possibly raise the 2nd pairs babies too, or would they likely try and kill them or something?

I might just try to raise them with the frozen bbs. I would love to have babies from these guys / both pairs actually. Then breed the best most orange babies of course. Ahhh fish dreaming, lol.

I've heard of people slipping in eggs next to a pair's eggs and then they raise them but it's a gamble. If the eggs were laid on 2 different materials, say one on slate and the other on driftwood, I doubt the fish would keep the eggs that weren't their's. Also, if the eggs were laid on different days so that they hatch on different days, it's unlikely to be a successful mix.
Mixing spawns for artificial rearing is much easier. If they were laid on the same day, in the same water parameters, they can be placed in a single tank for hatching.