Angel Eggs

[Scally]

OK. I have finally got a pair....... they have been together about three weeks now. I have 180 litre community tank. I have tetras, clown loaches, and gouramis as well as two angel fish
Came home from work tonight and I have eggs. yippee!!
There are at least a couple of hundred on a leaf.
My son has had eggs before and I know that the un fertilised ones will go pure white and I will get little tails coming out of the fertilised ones. We haven't managed to get past this stage. The longest we have had them live for is 5 days.
What I need to know is what do I do next?
Put eggs and parents in separate tank or just eggs?
Do I need a filter on tank? or just an airline?
Heater? (Yes I would imagine) Light?
Help please - I really want to have some baby angel fish. Have got live bearers in other tanks but not managed to raise any eggs to fry.

 

[mwood2]

well first we need to know the size of your tank, pics would help to. Also your asking if you need a heater and filter on another tank to hold the newly born angelfish correct? The best tank for holding the babies is something bare bottom, has an air pump powered filter that wont suck up the babies. Heater should be set to the same temp as your current tank so that you can move them over without shocking them. If you can provide a filter that can hold mature filter media from your current tank that wont harm the babies that would be ideal. When the babies are born you can feed them crushed up fish flakes.


Also for future fish births I would suggest keeping an extra air powered filter running on your main tank so that it can build up beneficial bacteria for when you need to set up the breeding tank again.

 

[always4lora]

Don't mean to sound thick but when your saying air powered filter what are you refering to ? wouldnt most filters ahve to suck the water so wouldnt there alwatys bea chance of the fry getting sucked in ?

 

[mwood2]

well there are a few cheap filter you can use that use bubbles/air to move the water through them. Namely spinge filters but there are a few cheap ones that can be found that just use an air pump. I found one at fredmeyers and petco.

 

[reportingsjr]

By air powered filter mwood means a filter like a sponge filter, which you attach to an air pump and the upward force/motion of the bubbles gingerly pulls water through a sponge and up a tube. The reason to use one of those is that the suction is over such a great area (the whole sponge) that nothing you will want to keep will get stuck on the sponge from the suction. (Except beneficial bacteria!)

 

[Tolak]

From experience you can just about double what you think you have, if it looks like a couple hundred, it's probably close to 400.

If half make it to sellable size, 1/2" to 3/4" body size, you will need tank space for around 200 angels, plus buyers for all you don't plan on keeping.

Half the buyers who say they will buy from you will back out in a few months, again, from experience.

You will need a bit of tank space, the 1/2" angels will need a half gallon each to develop properly. The 3/4" body size angels will need a gallon each, this is about the smallest size most shops or individuals will take them.

If you can handle all that, eggs in their own tank, dechlorinated water, air stone at first, until they are swimming. Bare bottom tanks work best, as you can wipe the bottom & siphon food out easier, this needs to be done at least once daily.

Once they are swimming pull the air stone, add a cycled sponge filter. Feed freshly hatched baby brine shrimp at least 3x daily, with 50% water changes daily for the first couple of weeks. A 5-10 gallon tank is ideal for hatching & initial growout. Baby brine shrimp is needed, or you will have massive amounts of dead fry. The fry need live micro food, the motion of the live food triggers their feeding instinct.

 

[8inary]

having gone through this before - and having had 100's of baby angels, one thing you need to think about is...what your going to do with them all. When i did it, i thought great, im going to get quite a bit of money from the lfs - however, when they got to a certain size, i phone around and no body wanted them lol - next step was well, can i sell them, again no one really wanted them, in the end, i ended up giving them away having spent money feeding them, looking after them, and to be fair, it was sad in a way, yes, it was an experience, however one that i will not be repeating.

i would however get some liquifry no.1 - that puts food into the water for the fry

another thing to remember: if you have 200 eggs - half may hatch '150' then out of those maybe 50% may live' 75, at this stage, you might get some males that become dominant and start killing off 'smaller' females, during one point, we ended up out of about 400 eggs, with one dominant male who killed off the others.

i guess after everything, the one thing you need to think about is......what will you do with them all?

 

[Tolak]

If you get half way good at it, and use the right food, such as bbs, you will have a 90% survival rate out of the swimmers. You will have considerable losses without live micro food, clean conditions, or lots of water changes. I tried liquifry, decaps, the whole route, the first couple of weeks bbs is the key, along with fresh water.

Local auctions are another way of selling fish, depending on the rules you could sell as many as 100, maybe more in one auction. You won't make a lot of money flooding an auction like that, but the fish will have a home, and you will make something.

I have 4 spawns growing out atm, another hatching this weekend, and a few months of auctions around the midwest, as well as shops that will need angels. It takes a little doing to work up to it, but it is nowhere near impossible, or always disappointing.

 

[Scally]

If you get half way good at it, and use the right food, such as bbs, you will have a 90% survival rate out of the swimmers. You will have considerable losses without live micro food, clean conditions, or lots of water changes. I tried liquifry, decaps, the whole route, the first couple of weeks bbs is the key, along with fresh water.

Local auctions are another way of selling fish, depending on the rules you could sell as many as 100, maybe more in one auction. You won't make a lot of money flooding an auction like that, but the fish will have a home, and you will make something.

I have 4 spawns growing out atm, another hatching this weekend, and a few months of auctions around the midwest, as well as shops that will need angels. It takes a little doing to work up to it, but it is nowhere near impossible, or always disappointing.

Thanks for all the advice Tolak - am off to lfs at lunchtime.
Have got a couple of spare tanks so will get one set up asap.