My angels have spawned!

[bs6749]

I went into my fishroom this morning and was thrilled to see that one pair of my breeding stock of angelfish had spawned for me...right on the piece of slate that I wanted them to spawn on. This was their first time so I didn't know that they would spawn for me but I had noticed pairing activity Sunday, which is when I placed the slate in the tank for them. I told friends that I was showing my tanks/fish/shrimp to on Wednesday that I think the angels were ready to spawn soon and I was correct. Two days later and I had a slate full of hundreds of eggs, ~95% of which were fertile. I had to go to work so I removed the slate from the tank and put it into half gallon Gatorade bottle with the top cut off and I inserted a heater and an airstone for them. I also added 1 drop of quick cure for ick which contains malachite green and formalin. I did this to prevent fungusing around the eggs and to kill off unwanted bacteria. I sorta did a "no-no" by using water from the parent tank which you don't want to do because of the infusoria which would rapidly take hold. Funny how you want the infusoria 5 days later to feed the free swimmers though. I knew the water had to be the same temperature though and I didn't have time to get it that way as I was running late for work. The quick cure should take care of the fungus/bacteria situation. I guess I'll see what they look like when I get home around 1:00 am.

I didn't want to leave the eggs in the tank for those of you that are wondering because there were 13 other angels and 6 rasboras in the 29. It's a little overstocked but I'm going to change that soon. I plan on several spawning pairs, two pairs each in a divided 29 and move the rest to my 100 gallon discus tank until I sell them. Hopefully I'll be able to sell them as proven pairs.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

I know ill take a few angels =D
congrats!

 

[bs6749]

Thanks! It's very reassuring when things like this happen. You know you are doing things correctly and are on the right track. At least it means that the fish are happy.

The angels are silver standard fins. I will need to buy some packaging material and figure out the best way to send them. Breather Bags no doubt, and I'm sure sytrofoam and heat packs are in the near future for me.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

not during this time of the year.. if anything you need ice packs lol

 

[bs6749]

But they won't be ready for at least a month! : ) Probably 6 weeks. I'd like to sell them at a little bit less than quarter size to quarter size to start moving them out. That is, provided that I have a good batch and know how to take care of them. I've got my eye on this gallon jar at work that is going to make the PERFECT tank for the free swimmers LOL.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

i went to walmart and got a gallon beta bowl and used it for my shrimp.. i have none left cause i fed them all to the sharks but.. they are only 9 bucks.. light, gravel filter and airstone. all myou supply is gravel and food =D

 

[bs6749]

Didn't think sharks needed feeders that often. I'm sure there's a lot better foods in the form of pellet/flake for them and it would even be cheaper that way.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

i spent 3 bucks on 30 of them lol just let them stay in there till i was ready for them

 

[bs6749]

No eggs hatched today. In fact, I'm not sure if they were even fertilized by a male. I didn't see them spawning just saw the female eating the eggs along with 3 other fish so I hastily pulled them. The last brownish/orange eggs turned white today but none were fungused.

The good news is that when I was rescaping my 55 gallon planted RCS tank another pair of angels spawned and if my male isn't sterile the eggs will be fertile because he was making passes along with the female. I also saw an egg drop twice and he picked it up both times and spit it back onto the leaf. He's showing promising parental instincts. However, I think I'm going to pull this batch as well. I talked to the breeder I got the angels from and he said they weren't parent raised and that most angels will eat them even after a couple of days. I guess the stress gets to be too much at that point and that's why they eat them. Most likely they wouldn't make it in that tank anyway with 13 othe angels and 6 rasboras. One rasbora looks sick and probably won't make it through the night though so that'd give them a better chance : )

 

[brutus]

what did the pair look like? i have a golden marble (male) and a Koi (female) pair get wigglers every two weeks but they always get eaten.

 

[brutus]

ok i read over they silvers nice.

 

[bs6749]

Hope you liked the pics. And I know it's overstocked LOL. Will change that soon.

 

[brutus]

you have eggs on a leaf in a pickle jar?

 

[bs6749]

Yeah. I cut the leaf off of the anubias, added a piece of lead to the bottom portion and then I put it in the base of the jar. It wanted to move around a little bit so I took a very small piece of slate and put it over the weight. I added a half capful of H2O2 last night and then again this morning and then again tonight. I'll continue dosing at this rate every 12 hours until I get wigglers. The tank water is at 82 degrees so they should hatch a little faster, hopefully tomorrow night or Thursday morning since they spawned Tuesday around 6:30.

 

[brutus]

ive never tried to keep any i dont have room but i have thought of doing that also just tonite i wiped all the eggs off sword leaf they lay today...i find they can be to agressive with my other fish. but usually i just leave them to be eaten. Its fun watching them try to protect them for a few days

 

[new2betas]

Pretty angels, Bryan!

 

[bs6749]

Thanks Dottie. So far, the second spawn is doing excellent as far as I can tell. I only have 7-8 unfertilized/dead eggs right now out of 400+ eggs but I'm expecting that to be much higher within the next 18 hours. None of the eggs are fungusing so the 1/2 capful of hydrogen perozide per half gallon jar every 12 hours is definitely working for me/the eggs. I'm hoping to get 200 wigglers from this spawn and hope that 150 get to dime size. Those are the numbers I'm shooting for. Wish me luck!

 

[brutus]

what size tank do you use for a grow out tank if you get 150 wigglers?

 

[bs6749]

I plan on keeping them in the 1/2 gallon pickle jar for as long as possible and do daily water changes. Hopefully they will be able to stay in there for 2+ weeks. I do this to keep the food:area ratio high. This means I can add a smaller amount of food to the jar more frequently. It also means that if I overfeed I may be in trouble so I'll have to stay on top of the water quality. After the 1/2 gallon jar is too small I plan to move them to a 10 gallon tank. That's the smallest I have available and I don't have room for a 5. A 10 is probably better anyway. Once they outgrow that I may sell some at dime size and move the rest to a 29 where I'll grow them out to quater size for sale. At least, that's the plan. Got to have wigglers first!

 

[brutus]

nice looking angels they almost look like them wild type