ncje

Well I have raised many discus before but always with the removal method. I really wanted to keep everything here as natural as possible, so with my angels have been attempting to raise young with the parents with no intervention at all.

What I have found so far and may be useful to others:

1/ With new parents the first 3-4 tries wont yeild much so dont be dissappointed whtn a batch of eggs just dissapears overnight.

2/ Get yourself a feeding ring. What I have found is, as the young become free swimming the young angel parents will still persistantly place them back to a leaf. Now what happens if they are swimming and food is moving around the tank they will sometimes pick up a young angel to place it back, see food, forget what they were doing and eat the food. Thus the little angel will end up inadvertantly swallowed. A feeding ring tends to keep food in one place so less chance of this happening.

3/ Angels can be overzealous in their protection of the young so try not to disturb them too much. See also 5 below:

4/ If your tank is generally clean, dont go crazy doing daily water changes. This annoys the parents and they tend to be overprotective which in turn causes young to be swallowed.

5/ I wouldnt recommend adding any additives to a tank such as anti fungal etc. Keep your tank clean with water changes etc. Once there is a spawn leave them alone for a good week. Some eggs do turn white but this is due to many factors the biggest being a mis hit by the male in spawning.

Ill add more as observations are made but for the record:

My angels are young parents. My angel clutches were small and failed at free swimming due to the above. I now have about 35 at the free swimming stage with little loss thus far. Anyway I find with each spawning, the angels get a little more experience and so do I. Maybe this clutch wont last either but again we are a step closer. The angels to get better.

Please read the TOPIC again: This is to rear angel fry with parents. Removal to a fry tank as eggs requires a whole different set of tactics as the parents are not tending the eggs.

Isabella

Hi Ncje ... thanks for all of the information It's also important to remember that nitrate should be at 0 all the time in a tank with angelfish fry.

ncje

Yes very true, its extremely important to have a clean tank at this stage. Although my nitrates are always around 5 and I havent seen any ill effects thus far. I more accurate head count today reveals 50 little angels. No Im not going to name them :P Just too many.

Isabella

LOL They must be so cute! And so many of them! Keep us updated on how they're doing How old are they already?