angelfish and fry

[MiamiCuse]

My angelfish spawn twice. First time they ate their eggs, second time a success, after about a little more than a week, all the fish are now swimming free and stayed in a corner of the tank. Here are some pics, mom is white, dad is the one with the long fins and stripes.

I probably made a mistake for not pulling the eggs out when it was on a slate but I decided to let the parents do their thing and when I got close they got real mad at me and pecked at me.

I read that most use brine shrimp hatched eggs to feed, but I don't have it, and I need to feed them now. So I went to the LFS and they recommended the SERA MICRON to me. I dusted some in the tank but I didn't see the fry going to it so they don't like it or this is not the right food?

They have been free swimming since this morning. Yesterday they were still clinging to the leaves of a sword plant, some were loose but most were still clinging and wiggling. This morning they broke free and are now guarded by parents.

Parents are not eating well either. I put in some blood worms and they took a bite or two but not aggressively feeding like they used to they are busy guarding the young.

 

[rich311k]

Congrats, good luck with them.

 

[bs6749]

Congratulations. As far as feeding the fry you are going to have to put the food as close to them as the parents will allow. They are too small and can't see the food you put into the tank. The closer to them the better!

 

[MiamiCuse]

Congratulations. As far as feeding the fry you are going to have to put the food as close to them as the parents will allow. They are too small and can't see the food you put into the tank. The closer to them the better!

I am trying...but the parent angels are very aggressive. I sprinkled some of the powered SERA MICRON in one corner where the fry are, and many of them came up to feed. The moma angel somehow thinks this is a threat, so she zooms up to the surface to try to break up the crowd and made a splash. She is doing her best to disrupt my feeding .

 

[MiamiCuse]

also my tank is getting very yucky.

The parents are guarding the babies. I have been feeding the SERA MICRON and it's powder so it's clouding the water, and I turned the filter off otherwise the fry would be sucked into them.

I changed water once yesterday and today it's cloudy again.

 

[MiamiCuse]

now the babies are two weeks old and size is about 4 or 5 mm (or about 1/4") from tip to tip. I am still feeding them SERA micron. When is a good time to switch to other food? Can they eat ground up flakes yet?

 

[rich311k]

Orly way to find out is to try and feed them some. They should be big enough soon.

 

[Acer]

you should be able to start feeding baby brine, ive always brought mine up using just fine ground flake

 

[MiamiCuse]

The other problem is for some reason the fry don't grow at the same rate. I have some fry that are twice as big as the rest. I never thought there would be such a size difference.

As I said, because of the fry I have stopped the filter otherwise they would be sucked into the filter intake. The water is getting yucky and there are bio matter at the bottom of the tank. Some of the fry would go and feed on them. The adult angels know they are not food but the fry don't. Will there be any serious issues if the fry eat the junk?

 

[rich311k]

Put a sponge over the intake, change water every other day and carefully vacuum up the gunk. I would also think about removing the parents soon.

 

[MiamiCuse]

will the parent eat the fry? they were guarding them but will they eventually see them as food?

 

[brutus]

the babys will start to eat the parents slime coat i read somewhere

 

[morningman]

try micros

See if youcan get a local hobbyist to give you a start of microworms for those baby angels. They won't cloud your water as much and they've got lot's of protein for the babes.

 

[rich311k]

The parents will eat the young sooner or later. Once they start thinking about a new batch of babies, the old batch becomes intruders.

Baby angels do not feed off the parents slime coat, that is discus fry you are thinking of.

 

[Acer]

you should set up a sponge filter or 2, dont worry about what you feed them right now, like i said earlier crushed flake, bbs, even small daphnia i feed mine, also with the sponge filter they will eventually feed @ unseen organisms on the actual sponge.. the important thing is to get all the uneated food out before it starts messing with your water quality, maybe thats why they arent growing evenly. i always remove mine into a spare tank or container for @ least the 1st 3 months then they go into the growout tank

 

[blueram06]

If you can set up a 10 with a sponge filter and put the fry in that.
You will want to be sure the sponge filter is cycled well before putting it in there though. Place a snail or 2 in there to help with the excess food too. When they get bigger you can put a small Ancistrus pleco in with them to clean up.
If fed well in 8 weeks they should be dime size.
We always pull the slate and hatch in a galon
jar, then after 7 days when they go free swimming we put them right into a 10 gallon with a sponge filter, by themselves. They will eat fry powder also as well as really fine flake food. You will see they are agressive eaters.
Hope this helps
Jay

 

[Menagerie]

You can put a sponge directly on the intake filter to prevent fry from being sucked up.

 

[blueram06]

Yes you are correct.
The biggest thing right now is to get the water cleared up, as the cloudiness means that the bad bacteria is taking over and all the fish will become ill.
It is important to get the filter running and do a 50% water change, if you have another well established tank you can take water from that to fill this tank.
Good luck
Jay

 

[MiamiCuse]

I do have a 10 gallon tank they can go in, but it's not empty. It has 12 neon tetras and 2 rummy nose tetra and 2 guppies.

Will they co-exist fine? I think they are now too big for the tetra's mouths, but I am not sure if they will survive if the tetras peck at them.

 

[blueram06]

They may peck at them, thinking they are food.
It may be best to do a water change and get the filter running. Just add water from that 10 to your filter to get some good bacteria in it.
When they get dime size they will be fine to put in the other tank. Of course you will have to get more tanks when they get too big.
Thats how we got so many.
Fish just keep spawning.
Don't stress you'll get them going just fine.
Jay