Angels laid eggs - for the 6th time...

[sudz]

So they're horrible parents. This time I managed to have a few seconds to spare at the right time and siphoned some eggs off their breeding spot into a breeding net/box.

When eggs are opaque - Dead? Still browny/clear/orange - Viable?

They laid about 36 hours ago. Tons of Photos:

Anything else I can do? I don't want to breed them for money or anything - But if a few survive I'll be happy. I don't know what I'd do with 200 angels. lol.

36 hours ago:

10 minutes ago - Much fewer eggs

Inside the breeder net: (a lot more white eggs...)

 

[Andy Sager]

White eggs are dead, clear eggs are alive. Unfortunately, Angels are not the best parents anymore mostly due to breeders keeping fish for colors not parental abilities. This dates back decades so it's nothing new. What you can do if the fish lay the eggs and don't eat them immediately is to let them spawn then remove the spawning site to another tank for hatching. This will need to be aerated so you will need to have an airstone and airpump available.
As for raising all the eggs, chances are good that all of them will not be keep-able as many fry today are deformed so even if you get a spawn of 200-300 eggs, you may only get 50- 100? that are still good a month or 2 later. So the fear of not having anywhere to put the extras comes down to trading them with a local store if they are salable fish or euthanizing them. When keeping fish, culling is an important factor in continuing to keep the fish in the hobby strong. ( That too has been lacking for years. )

That all said, you may find it takes multiple tries for the parents to get the spawning act down. So if you are not in a hurry to have these new eggs, you can let the pair continue to spawn until they either figure it out or you want to try to artificially hatch them.

I suggest reading through a thread in this breeding forum titled" Wigglers at last!!!!" It was an ongoing conversation by pro and hobbyist breeders all about Angles. Pretty much everything you need to know about the subject was discussed on that thread.

Hope this helps

 

[sudz]

Thank you!

Yup. All eggs eaten again. The ones I siphoned off all turned white as well. (Assuming from lack if a bubbler). I've got 5 gallon unused in the basement but no heater (well 7 watt won't cut it)

They keep laying on the inlet pipe to my filter. Pretty hard to relocate. Can I physically remove the eggs?

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you!

Yup. All eggs eaten again. The ones I siphoned off all turned white as well. (Assuming from lack if a bubbler). I've got 5 gallon unused in the basement but no heater (well 7 watt won't cut it)

They keep laying on the inlet pipe to my filter. Pretty hard to relocate. Can I physically remove the eggs?

If the eggs in the net turned white the same time the eggs on the tube did, chances are they were not fertilized so the lack of the bubbler was not the main cause.
You can use the 5 gal bin for the next spawn but get yourself a heater that can handle keeping the water at 78-82 degrees F as that's what is needed to hatch the eggs without post hatching complications. All you will need for that is an air stone and the heater and clean water ( not the water they were laid in.) It's all described in the "wigglers at last!!!" thread.

As for how to stop them from spawning on the intake tube, you have to take that option away from them. Place a piece of slate in front of the tube so that the fish spawn on that instead of the tube. That will help make things easier for removing the spawn. As for removing the eggs alone, chances are greater you will burst the eggs before you remove them so it's not a good idea. Better to make them spawn on something removable. Keep in mind, using a HOB filter in a breeding tank ( whether the intake is hidden or not) moves the water too much and you risk poor fertilization. I would still replace the HOB with an air driven sponge filter and that will definitely stop them. ( I have had fish use the lift tube of the sponge filter to spawn on when there was no slate available so you need to get some place better for them to spawn on.)
As for making the fish use something else, in my case with this new pair, I was cleaning tanks when I saw the female cleaning the silicone in the tank corner so I put in a slate she had used before on to the side glass adjacent to where she was cleaning. She went over to the slate and started cleaning it but then went back over to the corner again and continued cleaning. I then moved the slate over to the corner, blocking her access to the silicone, and they spawned on the slate. What the difference was in regards to where the slate was is anyone's guess but that's how you force the fish to choose another spot.