CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Well My angelfish spawned...just got lucky I guess. I'm new to angelfish breeding, so what do I need to do now. I have 4 angels, 2 rainbow cichlids, a cory cat, and a pleco in a 55 gal. I noticed the angels laid eggs on the intake tube of my mag 350. The pair are guarding good looks like. I would like for these eggs to hatch and survive. All help would be appreciated.

Thanks

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Aquatics Unlimited

check your e-mail, I replied there.

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Candice

Thanks Candice for your reply. As of now it looks like a few eggs have turned white so I know they are not fertile. What about since I can't remove the intake pipe if I turn the mag 350 off and just put a sponge filter in..will that be better? Also, if they eggs hatch will the wrigglers get eaten by the other angels or the parents?

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Aquatics Unlimited

You could turn the filter off if you want. Angels are a cichlid and they usually make very good parents. They will keep other fish away from the babies usually. However angels are also pretty "skittish" when it comes to spawning, any little change in their enviornment could turn them into egg cannibals. Its not suprising if this whole batch is not properly fertilized, your male probably has not yet learned to follow the female. If you get a chance to watch them spawn you'll notice that the female will go up and down the chosen spot with her fins trailing on it. This is for her to get a feel on where she needs to position her body in relation to the spawning slate. The males job is to closely follow behind her to fertilize the eggs she just laid. The male needs practice to successfully do this. He ends up shooting his stuff everywhere but on the eggs

Id give them 2-3 more chances before you start thinking of removing the eggs.

How often they will spawn depends on how much time you have to put into the fish. Angels thrive on frequent water changes. And by frequent I mean daily, not weekly. Usually 30% a day is optimum. If you can not change at least 50% 1x a week you will not be able to successfully breed them. On daily water changes they will usually spawn between 14-18 days. If they are still raising the fry themselves it will take longer.

If you do decide to move the eggs her is the set-up I use: a 1 gal. glass canning jar with 1 airstoe in it. remove the spawning slate and tilt it so that the air is moving directly ofer the eggs. Add enough methyl blue to turn the water a bluish tint. change 25% of the water every day. Leave them in their from the egg stage and wiggler stage. Remove them and put them in a 5 gal tank when they are free swimming. At this point you start to feed them. I use baby brine shrimp 5x a day (little often) after about 2-3 wks I start to add finely crushed flake at every other feeding. If you continue to do the daily water changes and cull out the unwanted babies you should have a nice looking group of angels ready to sell at around 2 months of age.

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Candice

I complete redone the tank today...Hope this helps out. I put a piece of slate in for the fry to fall on when they hatch so they don't go in the rock. Also I put a divider in so that I only have the parents and the eggs together. On that side of the tank I put an airstone and turned the mag 350 off. On the other side of the tank I put in a powerhead/pump for circulation. Anything else I need to do or am I doing it all wrong?

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Aquatics Unlimited

Sounds goo keep me posted on what happens.

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Candice

Well, now a funny thing has happened. I looked at the eggs this morning, and alot of them was sure to be dead. I turned around and walked away then as I was leaving the room I peeped back at the tank and the mom was picking the eggs off the intake. I assumed she was eating them or getting rid of the bad ones, so I went over there they was about 6-8 eggs left on the intake that look fertile. I watched the parents again for a few and noticed the mother was hovering over a leaf in the tank...I got curious so I went over to the tank and looked on the leaf and she has looks to be 5-6 free swimmers on the leaf. Now, the question is what do I do now?

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Aquatics Unlimited

Since there are only 5-6 smimmers Id pass this off as a learning expieience for both the parents and you. Let the parents try to raise them up. You can start adding baby brine if you want.

Congratulations, you are soon to have more grandchilderen then you can count!

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Candice

It looks as if they are gonna be good parents. I have looks to be around 10 wrigglers now. The parents make sure they stay on this one leaf. If one falls off the mother especially will go down and suck it up in her mouth and place it back on the leaf. Hopefully they won't turn mad and eat them.

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Aquatics Unlimited

Well they made it to the freeswimmer stage, and now they all died. I dunno what I did wrong. Seems like everything that spawns for me never makes it till I can see some progress. Everything is back to normal in their tank now, and I added a piece of slate for them, so maybe they will spawn again for me soon.

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Aquatics Unlimited

lol sooner than you think

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MELANIE

Well my angels are at it again....spawning once again on the intake, and not on the perfectly nice piece of slate I put in there for them. I'm at a standstill now. Last spawn was not successful as none of the babies survived.

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Aquatics Unlimited

Can you put the filter toward the end of the tank and place a divider in the tank so the angels can not get to the filter?



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Candice

You mean now, or leave the divider in all the time to keep them away from the intake?

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Aquatics Unlimited

O yeah one more thing...If I place the divider in to seperate the angels from the intake after the eggs hatch could I turn my mag 350 back on or would the babies get sucked through the divider? I can put a sponge over the intake also if you think it's needed. I dunno if I want to try to remove the babies this time or not since something went wrong last time and I lost them all. What do you guys think?

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Aquatics Unlimited