Apparently I'm now running a labor and delivery ward in my aquarium....

[jestes]

Well, two of my veil-tail angelfish and two of my Bolivian rams decided to get busy on the same day...

 

[krap101]

Congrats!

 

[Crepe]

What do you plan on doing with the babies?

 

[HN1]

Congrats! Great job!

 

[BolivianRams]

grats! wow exciting! Hope it works out for you

 

[DragonFish71]

Wow! What the heck to you add to your water?

Congrats

 

[krap101]

Are you planning to let the parents take care of them, or are you setting up a grow out tank?

 

[jestes]

Thanks everyone! I didn't do anything special to get either pair to breed. I bought four young angelfish about six months ago, and four Bolivians about a month ago from the same LFS. The angels were bred by another customer, and the owner ordered the Bolivians in.

Here's the specifics of my tank:
- 55 gallon South American biotope with Cardinals, cories, head and tail light tetras, angels, Bolivians, and a bristlenose pleco
- PH: 7.6, drops to 6.6 with CO2
- Temp 82
- Nitrates are dosed to 20 ppm with Estimative Index dosing
- Tap water has between 1-2 dKh, and 7.2 PH after gassing off, so I add crushed coral to the filter to buffer it. The dKh of the tank water is 5 right before a water change.
- I feed Hikari frozen bloodworms and Tetra tropical flakes, plus shrimp pellets, zuchinni, and algae wafers for the cories/ bristlenose
- The lighting is on for 8 hours a day, and it set to a timer. CO2 comes on with the lights, an air pump/stone comes on after the lights go out.


I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to save these two batches. I've got a feeling that bristlenose is going to be a happy camper if I can't figure something else out. Anybody ever try hatching these without the parents in one of those hang-in-tank specimine keepers? I can probably go get another ten gallon tank/heater/foam filter tomorrow. I've got a ten gallon hospital/quarantine tank, but it's got another bristlenose in quarantine right now. He'll go into another 55 gallon I'm doing a fishless cycle on. I know that the parents will take care of the eggs as best they can, but that bristlenose is about 6 inches. Something tells me he'd win.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[HN1]

IMO, start up a new 10 and save the fry you can. Angels seem to be more predacious and better parents IME so I would personally move the rams to the 10G growout tank.

Again, great job!

 

[Sharkbait_Ls1]

That's cool! I k ow it's way different bc I have a saltwater tank but my darn clownfish lay eggs like 3 times a month. That'd be awesome to see yours stat alive!

 

[DragonFish71]

Thanks everyone! I didn't do anything special to get either pair to breed. I bought four young angelfish about six months ago, and four Bolivians about a month ago from the same LFS. The angels were bred by another customer, and the owner ordered the Bolivians in.

Here's the specifics of my tank:
- 55 gallon South American biotope with Cardinals, cories, head and tail light tetras, angels, Bolivians, and a bristlenose pleco
- PH: 7.6, drops to 6.6 with CO2
- Temp 82
- Nitrates are dosed to 20 ppm with Estimative Index dosing
- Tap water has between 1-2 dKh, and 7.2 PH after gassing off, so I add crushed coral to the filter to buffer it. The dKh of the tank water is 5 right before a water change.
- I feed Hikari frozen bloodworms and Tetra tropical flakes, plus shrimp pellets, zuchinni, and algae wafers for the cories/ bristlenose
- The lighting is on for 8 hours a day, and it set to a timer. CO2 comes on with the lights, an air pump/stone comes on after the lights go out.


I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to save these two batches. I've got a feeling that bristlenose is going to be a happy camper if I can't figure something else out. Anybody ever try hatching these without the parents in one of those hang-in-tank specimine keepers? I can probably go get another ten gallon tank/heater/foam filter tomorrow. I've got a ten gallon hospital/quarantine tank, but it's got another bristlenose in quarantine right now. He'll go into another 55 gallon I'm doing a fishless cycle on. I know that the parents will take care of the eggs as best they can, but that bristlenose is about 6 inches. Something tells me he'd win.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I know when we had a pair of gold rams that spawned we moved the wigglers into one of those nets breeders and none survived. It could have been because we stripped them too early (they were 4 days old), they could have been to delicate or who knows what.


With our firemouths we moved them a week after they hatched and we still have darn near the whole spawn. (I know they're tougher than rams)

 

[krap101]

You could give them a few tries at parents before you start removing the eggs. I think the eggs stand a much better chance (and a higher survival rate) with the parents generally. If the pleco becomes a problem you can try to remove them, and I think people sometimes add methylene blue as an antifungal. I think with these kinds of fish, the parents usually fan the eggs and eat the fungused ones. I think some people say it takes a few tries before they start taking care of their eggs, but ymmv

 

[DragonFish71]

+1

With the rams we've had (golds and GBRs) they've always eaten their first spawn with in the first 48 hours. The pair we just got who just spawned this Sunday night already ate the eggs.

 

[jestes]

Well, I apparently misjudged my timing on when the Rams laid their eggs. I now have wigglers! They dug out a nice little hole next to the hairgrass and the whole bottom of that hole is now squirming! I tried to get a picture of it, but it may not have turned out very well.

 

[krap101]

I can see it or I'm imagining it. Either way, Awesome!

 

[BolivianRams]

wow this is exciting haha. In my opinion when the fries are freeswimmers you should leave at least 10 in there so the parents can practice parenting and save the rest in the 10 gallons tank, same with the angels.

 

[BolivianRams]

oh and more pics please! A video would be nice also

 

[Sharkbait_Ls1]

That's awesome!

 

[jestes]

Hey everyone, sorry for being MIA the past few days. Anyway, I've got the rams moved to their own 10 gallon tank with a foam filter/heater. A small handful of angelfish eggs hatched, but none of the fry became free swimming. They wiggled around a little, but never could get off the bottom of the tank. They kicked the bucket within a few hours.

Happily, the Rams are doing better. I've lost about a third so far, but that still leaves me with 50-100. The others seem to be doing OK, but we'll see. I'm feeding hikari first bites and frozen bbs, plus doing 50% water changes once a day. I tried taking some video, but I've got no way to get it onto my computer... lol. I'm a little bummed about loosing the ones I have, but this whole thing caught me off guard. I'll be a little better prepared next time.

On a side note, has anyone ever tried putting a snail or two in the fry tank to clean up the leftover food? Snail poop would be a lot easier to see, and probably faster to clean up that uneaten food.

 

[Dan_Forbz]

wow congrats, aren't bristle nose pleco's herbivores ? they shouldn't bother the eggs should they?