I’m currently debating whether or not to continue raising angelfish, due to the issues that I have had with the previous fish shop and the owner messing me around. Life looks a little more scary (and expensive!) when you have 200-300 angelfish with no homes to go to!!

In the short term I intend to write some articles on other aspects of fishkeeping, so please continue to check out my blog, or feel free to make some suggestions for blog posts using the comments box below. I’ll be starting with snails and algae, my two favourite things in the aquarium!

Pictures to follow, comments welcome

As a random point, it’d be nice to hear from readers who have any feedback for this blog, so please do get in touch with opinions and suggestions using the comment function below. In the mean time I’ll try and get some final images of the remaining fry.

Comments welcome!

The little guys have been feeding on decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, Tetra Pro Colour (which coloured them up brilliantly, may I add!) and live adult brine shrimp. A major highlight for me was watching them trying to figure out what the brine shrimp were…it took them a little while until one of the quieter fry plunged in and ate one….carnage then ensued!! In recently weeks I have also added bogwood and live plants to the tank, to give the fry something to pick at between meals. The live plants always bring the fry on at a frightening rate, but they don’t last very long with so many little mouthes attacking them!!

Here they are in action:

The fry will be passed on to the shop in batches of around 40 at a time, depending on demand, starting in the next week and, unlike the last time, I won’t be keeping one of them for myself, which is hard.

Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.

As can be seen from the footage, today is the first day for the fry without the sponge cover of the filter inlet. To be honest the sponge needed changing so I thought I’d try and see how the fry dealt with the exposed inlet and they’ve been fine. IT now means it’s even easier to keep the tank clean as the flow is much improved. Feel free to let me know what you think of the lil guys…

It’s also worth noting that the fry will need to be weaned onto non-live food before being passed onto their new owners, as not too many owners will be pleased having to provide daily live food!  I have gradually been introducing decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, as this has a very high energy density but is obviously still, like flake would be.  As of yet, there hasn’t been too much interest but perseverance is the key here.

As you may be able to see from the video, I have added some bogwood to the tank, to give the fry something to pick at, as last time I found live plants and bogwood seemed to help with their growth. It saves them getting bored too! I have also replaced the sponge covering the filter inlet, which I do periodically to as the sponge can get badly clogged over time.

Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.

I will try and get some photos tomorrow, they’re a bit easier to take now that the subjects have calmed down a bit!

Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.

See if you can spot the ventral fins! I’ve also found one of the fry that I’m becoming rather fond of…He has his little yellow head and his koi markings make him look like he’s got a huge black eye! I’ll try to get a photo of him shortly

As it happens, the four that died were small, so perhaps they were already weak and they ended up near the sponge due to the circulation.  I have moved the sponge to prevent this in the future but still feel terrible about the lost four…

Bad times!

Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.

This is always a risk as feeding the fry is more difficult and getting the flow rate right is an issue.  Furthermore, ensuring that the tank has successfully been adapted to ensure that it’s fry-proof is never a certainy until the fry have tried it out.  It’s worth noting here that the fry are like lemmings…if there’s any way they can die they will find it!  Bear this in mind when preparing their homes.

On a side note this is the first time that I’ve had an opportunity to see all of the fry swimming around and look for any fry with swimming problems.  There are a few which aren’t swimming as I’d expect so I’m going to give them a couple of days, after which some tough decisions must be made…

They now all have very distant dorsal and anal fins, with the next stage of their development being their transformation into the deep angelfish shape we all know and love. At this stage, however, they still look more like torpedoes, each with the now unique patterning to their body.

The fry are also starting to outgrow their vase, so over the enxt couple of days they will be moved out and into their grow-out tank.  I am concerned about this as I feel that they are still a bit small for 125 litres’ worth of space.  Having too much space could frighten the fish into hiding, as well as making feeding them very difficult.  On the plus side, it stops the need for twice-daily water changes, which bodes well for my lie-ins!

I’m not sure if that photo is clear enough to see the fins…please comment and let me know. I’ll try to add more images as they make further progress!

As you can see, the fry are no longer transparent, they now have a shiny surface so their jaffa cake bellies are no longer visible.  I’ll be taking name requests shortly!

Luckily, I have a ready supply of decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, which are a sufficiently nutricious source of food…the only problem is that it is obviously still.  Usually with fry, they can be successfully weaned onto ‘still’ food, such as flake or, in this case, the decap. eggs, however this takes a significant amount of time to achieve.  I’ve just had to feed the fry the decap. brine shrimp and hope for the best.  I’ve turned the current up slightly on the air stone, in the hope that it will keep the decap. eggs moving and trick the fry into thinking that they are moving.

Let’s hope I have good news for tomorrow…

Here, the markings of the darker kois can be seen (near the top of ‘the cloud’).  I took this photo just before clean/feeding time so all of the fry are huddled together, rather subdued, waiting for their brine shrimp.  Just for the record, there have been no more deaths since day 2/3, however there are a couple of tiny fry which may need culling if they are still not growing properly.  Culling is a bit of a hot topic…personally I believe that the fry deserve a chance to try and develop, as some may develop later than others, but fish with deformities which will affect their quality of life will only result in them being bullied by their tankmates.  Therefore culling them prevents this…I’d be interested on opinions on culling.  Please feel free to voice your opinions in the comments section, below.

Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.

This is a video of a previous spawn, Tom can be seen first laying eggs on the leaf, with Tiger following her to fertilise them.

Tiger was the first angelfish I owned, bought for me by my grandfather at an auction. As for Tom, she was bought for my birthday a few months later.  I’ve had them both since 2008 and they’ve been spawning for over a year now.  The duration between spawns can be anything from 7 to 21 days.  This duration can be minimised through feeding live food.

As for their young, they mostly turn out about 50-50 dark: light koi, with some near black and a few looking like Tiger.  He’s a pic of a juvenile I kept from the last spawn I raised.

Their tails are now no longer just thin points sticking out of their body but they actually have a definite ‘spine’ region and separate ‘fin’ region.  There have also been no more deaths, which is nice! They seem to want to school together and it is now more apparent when the little guys are feeding, as they actually go after their BBS and the negative mouth pressure method of catching their prey is now apparent. As you can see from the above image, feeding time is rather hectic!

On a side note, I think I actually saw some pecotral fins today, but it’s very hard to see yet as they’re so small, I’ll keep you updated!

Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.

The orange tummies are a big relief, as they obviously use a great amount of energy when trying to swim, so the fact that the odd one starting swimming yesterday but hadn’t started eating was a big concern.  All’s well that ends well though and all of the little guys are coming along brilliantly!

The video doesn’t reveal much detail, so here’s a still of them in action:

Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.

I have been adding BBS since yesterday, just to try and combat potential starvation.  This is fine as long as the water changes are stepped up to match.  I’m currently performing twice daily 50% water changes as a result.  There’s still no signs of them eating the BBS, usually it’s quite obvious as their tiny stomachs turn orange immediately after a feast!  As long as the eggs have good circulation and access to live food, I’m not concerned.  If they still haven’t eaten in 24-48 hours, then I might change tactics…

N.B. I appreciate that the above video isn’t the best, so here’s a still of the little guys on the side of the vase:

Powered by Cincopa Media Platform for your website and Cincopa MediaSend for file transfer.

There are still no free swimmers but it’s still a bit early anyway…this is the anxious time though, waiting for the first few free swimmers! Hopefully they’ll be swimmng soon.

Please note the above video is actually from day 3…there aren’t any eyes visible in this video!

The first signs of anything come in the form of a very thin tail, which will start to wiggle frantically.  At this point most of the eggs will still be attached to the spawning site (the leaf/slate or whatever the eggs were placed on by the parents).  However the odd egg may have fallen off, resulting in it now wiggling at the bottom of the hatchery.  Don’t worry about this, this is why such a small initial hatchery was chosen, rather than 3 ft tank!  At this stage the eggs will start to grow what looks like a head, with the original egg acting as a ‘body’.  At this stage though, it just looks like an eggs that has been glued to a surface.

Regular partial water changes continue, with the ‘new’ water being taken from the bigger tank, that the vase is currently sat in.  This ensures the the temperature of the new water matches the old water, thus not stressing the eggs.

On a side note, the marks I initially witnessed on the eggs, that I thought were eyes, weren’t actually eyes but the base of the tail/spine of the fish-to-be. Also, as you can see from the image, compared to the previous post, there are fewer eggs on the leaf. This is because some have fallen off the leaf…dont’ worry they’re fine! As well as the three leaves, there are now a little cluster of eggs at the bottom of the vase.

These eggs were retrieved and placed inside a handy vase, inside my 3ft tank.  All that’s needed to get things going is an airstone and a few drops of Acriflavin…now it’s just a waiting game until we see some movement, which should be about day 3.

Before they lay the eggs, I need to prepare a few things: a hatchery to keep the eggs in, some fungiside to protect the eggs, a grow-out tank, an air stone, sponge, the leg off a pair of tights, a heater, salt  and some brine shrimp hatcheries. More detail to follow…

The hatchery - this is basically where the spawn will first be placed.  It needs to be big enough for the spawning site (plant/slate) to fit into, as well as an airstone, but small enough so that, when free-swimming, the fry feel secure and can be easily fed.  This time I am using a larger, wide vase, compared to last time when I used a 40 litre tank, which resulted in blue silicon (from the meth blue), as well as very difficult feeding times!

Fungicide – the two most common fungicides used for this are meth blue and acriflavin.  The first time I raised eggs I used both (in the appropriate doses, of course!) whereas, by contrast, some people don’t use any.  There is literature available, which suggests that there is a direct link between fry death rate and the use of these chemicals, I will source it and add it at a later date for your consideration.  This time I have decided to use just acriflavin, which is commonly used in larger doses in ponds.  Literally one or two drops is sufficient, however this does depend on your hatchery size.

Grow out tank – To be discussed in more detail later.  The main issue here is ensuring that you have enough space to safely grow the fry on to decent sizes.  Initially, this tank doubles up as a thermal stabiliser, add the heater and filtration to this tank then place you hatchery inside, resulting in the hatchery temperature being maintained, as well as having a regular source of fish-safe water for the water changes.

Air stone - When it comes to the air pump for the air stone, where possible buy a dual outlet pump, as the other outlet well be useful later.  The air stone needs to be placed inside the hatchery, to ensure that the water is circulating over the eggs.  I have heard of the debate about having the bubbles in direct contact with the eggs, but I can say, from my experience, it makes no difference, so long as there is circulation.

Tights and Sponge – These are for the filter inlet in the grow out tank, either or both will suffice…most people use a sponge filter in their grow-out tank, I’m going to try my canister filter this time, as it will provide superior filtration (I also have UV in-line with filter), but I’ll just have to be careful to ensure that the flow isn’t too high for the fry.

Brine shrimp hatcheries and salt – in order to successfully get the fry to eat, moving food is best…cue baby brine shrimp!  From just after the free-swimming stage, the fry need to be fed regularly and often as their stomachs are so small.  As a result, I’d recommend two brine shrimp hatcheries which are started on alternating days, resulting in one always containing baby brine shrimp (BBS), while the other is 24 hours away.  Some people make DIY hatcheries from drinks bottles, but if you’d prefer the submerged variety, I find the NT Labs ones to be good.  Place the two hatcheries into the grow out tank and start preparing BBS one day before they need it (around the free-swimming stage). Ensure you also buy a funnel!

Once these are set up, you’re good to go…