Wigglers 2: Birth of a hatchery & everything Angels

[skylane]

Hi Andy, good topic today about the various foods. In my community tank, when I feed the bottom dweller's all the other fish dig in too, including my Angels and Discus, it neat watching them munch at the sinking foods. I feed them, plecos and loaches, Hikari sinking waffers, Tetra Veggie algae waffers which new too them, Omega one flakes, and blood worms frozen, and once a week Tetra color granules. I feed them a mix of food each day, as needed. So far no dietary distinction, or illness to report with the foods I'm feeding for now![emoji6]
Even though these are different brands and the fish took to them , I introduced the different foods slowly. I've been lucky with my main fish thus far , when I built the 90gal , the Discus and Angels are doing well, and Tetras too!!
As soon as I get better , I'm going to do a major reduction in stock, as to what I'm going to keep, breed or re home. [emoji38]

Clem

 

[sinibotia]

I see my young angels picking at algea, but I think it's mostly looking for scraps and bugs so I don't worry much about it.

 

[Andy Sager]

I see my young angels picking at algea, but I think it's mostly looking for scraps and bugs so I don't worry much about it.

Algae is a good example. Many people think the fry are eating it but they are more than likely eating the infusoria that lives on the algae. In many cases, where the fry are too small to eat newly hatched brine shrimp, starting the fry off in an algae filled tank is very helpful to get them over that first hump (especially when growing green water or other microfoods is a problem.)

 

[RRP1501]

Hey Andy, how are things going? Haven't been on to much lately. I have 3 sets of fry growing and they are all about 1 week apart. I figure about 200 in one tank that have survived with the parents. The other two have about 25 that have survived. They are the ones that I have hatched away from the parents. When should I or when could I move them to the grow out tank? I want to separate the parents where the male is still attacking the female. I'm even afraid of putting the male into my community tank. I am going to try and see if I can get the two Smokey Angels to pair off. I would like to see if the two Gold Angels will pair off. I'll talk at you later.


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[Andy Sager]

Hey Andy, how are things going? Haven't been on to much lately. I have 3 sets of fry growing and they are all about 1 week apart. I figure about 200 in one tank that have survived with the parents. The other two have about 25 that have survived. They are the ones that I have hatched away from the parents. When should I or when could I move them to the grow out tank? I want to separate the parents where the male is still attacking the female. I'm even afraid of putting the male into my community tank. I am going to try and see if I can get the two Smokey Angels to pair off. I would like to see if the two Gold Angels will pair off. I'll talk at you later.


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Technically, you can move them any time however, the larger the aquarium, the harder it will be for the fry to find their food. I usually don't move my fry out of the 10s until they are about 30 days old for this reason. By then they should look like little Angelfish and be feeding quite hardily.

 

[RRP1501]

Well, here they are. They are right at 30 days now. I'll probably transfer them this weekend. The 25 fry in the other tank are 1 week younger but are actually larger than these. Could it be because they don't have to share a as much food with their siblings? Anyway, I really appreciate the info you always give me. I've learned a lot from you. Take care and talk to you soon.


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[Andy Sager]

View attachment 283718Well, here they are. They are right at 30 days now. I'll probably transfer them this weekend. The 25 fry in the other tank are 1 week younger but are actually larger than these. Could it be because they don't have to share a as much food with their siblings? Anyway, I really appreciate the info you always give me. I've learned a lot from you. Take care and talk to you soon.


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You hit the nail right on the head. Less fish and more food equals more space and food and more space and food added to good water conditions equals faster growth.

As for the rest, glad it helps.

 

[Andy Sager]

Murphy's law at it's finest today. We are having an unseasonable warm day today ( 80 degrees ) before a cold snap comes so I am cleaning up the place and I have all the windows and door open trying to air out the building. I go to put some things in the sink to bleach out and I look into the cory breeding tank, which is right next to the sink, and the Cories are spawning. That would be great except TOMORROW is water change day so who knows what the water quality is in there and they laid some eggs on the sponge filter, which I was going to try to remove this time and just use a power head for circulation and no aeration so I could use the peroxide again. So far, the only success I've had with the cory eggs has been when I leave the eggs in the tank and just remove the parents. I could just try to remove the eggs from the filter but as of this moment, there are about 20 eggs on it so I don't want to fiddle with it. PLUS, they are still going at it so who knows how many end up on the filter. I'm really hoping I can get this spawn to survive as I could use some cories in a number of tanks as a clean up crew.

 

[sinibotia]

Shhhh, don't say clean up crew, it's not fishkeeping-PC Hope you have better luck with this spawn!

Dunno if you saw but I've got what I believe are albino free swimmers- seem to have no pigment, almost a ghostly white in stark contrast with what appear to be "normal" fry

 

[Andy Sager]

Shhhh, don't say clean up crew, it's not fishkeeping-PC Hope you have better luck with this spawn!

Dunno if you saw but I've got what I believe are albino free swimmers- seem to have no pigment, almost a ghostly white in stark contrast with what appear to be "normal" fry

As I've said before, I am not always politically correct however, in this case, it really will be a cleaning crew because I tend to overfeed the larger fish so the cories will definitely have some good food to be eating and not poop ( which is not their actual diet) so they will be cleaning up my messes.

Yes, I did see about the light colored wigglers. All I can say is you are still a long way from them surviving so we'll dance more when they are a bit larger. Just an FYI, my original red cap Angels back in the 80s started out as clear "ghost" Angels only to turn white about 6-8 months down the road ( I found out after I sold them all off as Ghost Blushings ). When they get a bit larger, you can use a light and see if their eyes are pink. If they aren't, or have a black eye, they're not albinos. Another little FYI, you will want to keep the light more subdued for the albinos. They do not handle bright light very well.

It's looking really good that I will be in Maine in June so I'll see them then. Make sure you still have them then......

 

[Laeris]

What if you only do a sneaky low flow PWC? That'll address half the heavens knows what. I know you already know what you're doing ?

 

[Andy Sager]

What if you only do a sneaky low flow PWC? That'll address half the heavens knows what. I know you already know what you're doing ?

I'll wait until the fish are done spawning then do a water test to see what's happening. I do have a bucket of about 4 gallons of good clean water that I made up for selling fish in and that bucket is sealed so no air gets into it so there shouldn't be any ammonia issue. If I need to do any water changes, I'll lower the water level in the tank to the highest spot the fish put eggs and use the new water. Now that I know there will be a nitrate issue, I will just have to do more water changing than I would normally do. Fingers crossed they don't put eggs at the top of the tank lie last time.

 

[Laeris]

?! And ?????!

 

[RRP1501]

Hey guys, in my community tank I have 3 Albino Cories and one of them looks pregnant. What do the eggs look like, and do they prefer to lay eggs on the glass? I have a whole bunch of white spots on my glass but I believe they are from the snails in the tank. I have Malaysian Trumpet snails and a few zebra Nerite snails.


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[Andy Sager]

Hey guys, in my community tank I have 3 Albino Cories and one of them looks pregnant. What do the eggs look like, and do they prefer to lay eggs on the glass? I have a whole bunch of white spots on my glass but I believe they are from the snails in the tank. I have Malaysian Trumpet snails and a few zebra Nerite snails.


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For starters, the catfish cannot be pregnant. It's a pet peeve of mine and I, and others I'm sure, would appreciate the proper use of the word. So to be correct, she would be " gravid" not pregnant.
That said, the bad news is that if the eggs you are seeing are white ( or whitte and fuzzy) and they are in fact cory eggs, then they are no good. They should look like little beads and be opaque more than white. Also, if you see them more than 3 or 4 days, then they are not cory eggs as they should have hatched by then so if not, then they are most likely your snail eggs. Also, in a community tank, fish eggs generally don't last that long as the other fish usually eat them.

As for them spawning on the glass, cats spawn everywhere not just on the glass. Right now, mine have eggs on plants ( live and plastic), the sponge filter and 3 sides of the tank and the bottom. Ironically, they are not on the front glass where it would be easier for me to see them. Of course, right? But to be sure, if you have a high powered magnifying glass and you can see the eggs up close, you will see a small black dot in the middle of the egg if it is viable. That would be the embryo. If you see that, then keep tabs on them as they are still good. I was able to see the embryos in my last cory spawn and I see even better with the pleco spawns. With the plecos, you can't see the embryo real well but you can see the blood veins pumping so I know they are good. It's an amazing thing to see ( at least to me it is. )

 

[Andy Sager]

Well it's been over 5 hours and the cories are still at it. There's no mistaking that either as I just stood in front of the tank and watched, for the first time, the female releasing the eggs into her fins. Definitely a first for me as I'm used to seeing the eggs after they have been deposited or in the female's fins but not coming into the fins. And the already laid eggs are everywhere.
So I don't want to do any testing yet but on a good note, the air quality test I just took came up as a 0 reading so hopefully, this will help me not need to try the powerhead method.

 

[fish wrangler]

:As for them spawning on the glass, cats spawn everywhere not just on the glass. Right now, mine have eggs on plants ( live and plastic), the sponge filter and 3 sides of the tank and the bottom. Ironically, they are not on the front glass where it would be easier for me to see them. Of course, right?

Just get the old man cheater glasses out and I'm sure you can see the eggs any where in the tank

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[RRP1501]

Cool! Thanks for correcting my terminology! I'll keep an eye out for the eggs. I'll try to scrape them off and get them into my 2 gallon fish bowl with an air stone and M.B. Hey, I learned something today so today it was a good day!


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[Andy Sager]

Just get the old man cheater glasses out and I'm sure you can see the eggs any where in the tank

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I could see, without my glasses , that there were no eggs on the front glass. I put the glasses on and confirmed that...No eggs on the front glass. Back glass, Side glasses and Bottom all have eggs but NONE on the front. ( I removed the parents this morning as some of the eggs disappeared over night and moved a plastic plant with eggs to the front so I can watch their development.) Sadly, I took a nitrate test this morning and it was high. Might be too high Won't know for sure for a day or 2. I did a water change this morning so we will see.

Cool! Thanks for correcting my terminology! I'll keep an eye out for the eggs. I'll try to scrape them off and get them into my 2 gallon fish bowl with an air stone and M.B. Hey, I learned something today so today it was a good day!


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No problem. Just trying to keep you all grammatically correct.

 

[coralbandit]

What level nitrate do you consider high for the eggs?