OMG!! My 55 is crawling with breeding fish!

[crazyred]

Okay, my rams have laid many sets of eggs....several batches of which have hatched successfully and the babies are getting big in my 10 gallon. My A. cactuoides laid 2 sets of eggs and I thought they got eaten, but today I saw two tiny little fry that have managed to survive. My A. trifasciata have laid eggs before, I don't think it was successful, but who knows. And now, apparently 2 out of 3 of my angels have paired off and they are vigorously defending a clutch of eggs that they laid on a vertical amazon sword leaf. 8O What is in the water at my house that has all these fish having babies??? LOL These are supposed to be 'soft water' fish that won't spawn in my hard water!!! Maybe I should run out and set up a discus tank. LOL

Now, what do I need to do with these angel eggs? I know how to take care of ram eggs, but I know nothing about breeding angels....HELP!

 

[Zagz]

My you have quite the breeding fest going on in your tank. Are you planning on removing the eggs before they hatch? If so move them without letting them hit the air, being that they are on a leaf you would have to move them by cutting the leaf off I guess. Mine spawned on the filter intake to make life easier on me. Once they are in a breeding tank with a sponge filter, you need to add methylene blue or hydrogen peroxide to avoid fungus. It is also good to have a small airstone in the breeder tank. Away from the eggs of course. The temp in the tank shoud be about 80F-82F. I think that ram eggs are hatched in a similar fashion. Haven't bred any of my rams yet. If the eggs turn white, remove them they have fungused. Fertilized angel eggs will be a goldish color. Once they hatch feed them either live baby brine shrimp, you can hatch them yourself if you choose to, or egg yolks squished up very very fine. You will have to do water changes with airline hosing so as to not suck up too many fry. I did mine into a clean white pail so I could scoop the fry back into the tank when they got sucked up. This is what I did when my angels spawned. I am by no means an expert on angelfish eggs, just my own experience. Good luck.

 

[BrianNY]

Here's a link to a thread I started awhile back on breeding my angels. Getting any fry to survive in a community tank is more luck than anything else. Anyone truly interested in spawning fish should devote a tank to that goal.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=68582&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

[crazyred]

Sorry I haven't got back...LOL It was a crazy holiday weekend. Several of the angel eggs have hatched and the parents are diligently caring for the fry. I've watched them both scoop the babies up in their mouth, carry them around and spit them back out where they want them. These two are fantastic parents. If the babies start to fall off of the amazon leaf that they are using the mommy scoops them up in her mouth and spits them back out where she wants them. They are also VERY protective.

I'm having a blast watching this. I'm about ready to call angels mouth brooders because she keeps them in her mouth when she thinks they're in danger. I think she puts them in her mouth to sleep and spits them back out in the morning. This is incredible!!!