Angelfish breeding disaster

HI guys I recently had my angelfish pair lay more eggs on a leaf in my main aquarium. I removed the eggs so they wouldn't be eaten and for 2 days I placed them inside a container inside the aquarium with an airstone to provide water circulation.
On the second day I noticed that around half of the eggs had died due to fungus.
I upgraded the rest of the eggs which I separated from the bad eggs to a larger set up with a heater and an airstone however none of the eggs made it past the wiggler stage.
I also added an antI fungal medication when the eggs were hatching in the new set up.

I have never had so many angelfish eggs die to fungus and I have never needed to medicate the water a lot in the past for fungal problems. Could anyone give me some advice on how to prevent all my eggs dieing due to fungus again ?
This would be very appreciated, thank you

 

Were they fertilized?

 

Eggs don't "die due to fungus". They develop fungus because they were not fertile. The male angelfish can often miss a lot of the eggs. So the ones that turned white and developed fungus were simply infertile eggs. And there is nothing you can do about that. The male just needs to get better at his job.

What antifungal med were you adding? I am going to guess that may have been the culprit for killing the wigglers. Adding meds as the eggs were hatching....There is no reason to add antifungal medication to eggs that are actively hatching. How long did the wigglers last before they died off?

 

Sometimes I've had fungus from a non-fertilized egg transfer to a viable one, usually they are near wiggler stage by the time the fungus appears and the viable eggs can still hatch. When the eggs are left with the parents, the parents will normally move the hatched wigglers to another site away from the fungus. Or if it's just a few missed eggs, they will pick away the non-viable eggs before they fungus over.

So when hatching artificially, it's important to have a gentle stream of bubbles moving over the eggs to aerate them. The parents aerate the eggs by fanning them almost continuously. And pick away any opaque white eggs before they fungus. I use a wooden skewer or toothpick cuz the fungus sticks to the wood. AntI fungal meds are not normally needed for angelfish eggs.

 

Sometimes I've had fungus from a non-fertilized egg transfer to a viable one, usually they are near wiggler stage by the time the fungus appears and the viable eggs can still hatch. When the eggs are left with the parents, the parents will normally move the hatched wigglers to another site away from the fungus. Or if it's just a few missed eggs, they will pick away the non-viable eggs before they fungus over.

So when hatching artificially, it's important to have a gentle stream of bubbles moving over the eggs to aerate them. The parents aerate the eggs by fanning them almost continuously. And pick away any opaque white eggs before they fungus. I use a wooden skewer or toothpick cuz the fungus sticks to the wood. AntI fungal meds are not normally needed for angelfish eggs.

But the fertile eggs were separated and DID hatch. So whatever killed the wigglers was not fungus related in my opinion...I'm leaning towards adding the antifungal meds as the eggs were actively hatching being the issue.

And I've had the same experience as you. Good eggs can hatch surrounded by fungus. And wigglers can survive the fungus cloud. I've had them swim out of the fungus cloud all on their own. (On a spawn I was letting nature takes its course on and the parents were not doing their job) I was very surprised the wigglers escaped the cloud! It was bad! Lol

So again...with that said...fungus was not the issue in my opinion.

 

But the fertile eggs were separated and DID hatch. So whatever killed the wigglers was not fungus related in my opinion...I'm leaning towards adding the antifungal meds as the eggs were actively hatching being the issue.

And I've had the same experience as you. Good eggs can hatch surrounded by fungus. And wigglers can survive the fungus cloud. I've had them swim out of the fungus cloud all on their own. (On a spawn I was letting nature takes its course on and the parents were not doing their job) I was very surprised the wigglers escaped the cloud! It was bad! Lol

So again...with that said...fungus was not the issue in my opinion.

I think you might be right about adding medication I added it yesterday. The last wigglers died today (only about 5 or 7 eggs completed the hatching process in total) many eggs died before hatching and quite a few during the process. I added the medication yesterday in an attempt to save the few eggs which weren't covered in fungus. However the wigglers weren't acting as they should as they weren't wiggling around too much. Could another cause of this be that the temperature of the water (26°C) was too low for the fry ?
The medication I used was King British fin rot and fungal control. This was probably not the best medication as I wanted to use Methyline Blue but couldn't find it at my local pet store.

 

I think you might be right about adding medication I added it yesterday. The last wigglers died today (only about 5 or 7 eggs completed the hatching process in total) many eggs died before hatching and quite a few during the process. I added the medication yesterday in an attempt to save the few eggs which weren't covered in fungus. However the wigglers weren't acting as they should as they weren't wiggling around too much. Could another cause of this be that the temperature of the water (26°C) was too low for the fry ?
The medication I used was King British fin rot and fungal control. This was probably not the best medication as I wanted to use Methyline Blue but couldn't find it at my local pet store.

The same would have held true for the meth blue. You can add it when they are eggs, but you want it out of the water by the time they hatch. Its not good for the wigglers.

Yes, 78f is a little cool. I'd bump it up to 80-82 (sorry I don't do Celsius lol) But still, 78 degrees vs 80-82 would not be deadly.

I want to reiterate though....your eggs are not dying. They were infertile. So they were rotting. And some will rot faster than others.

There is no medication that will prevent an infertile egg from "dying" because they were never alive to begin with. Yes, meth blue can prevent the development of fungus on the infertile eggs. But it won't magically make the infertile eggs fertile. So they will still be "Dead" eggs. There is literally nothing you can do about that other than finding a male that will do a better job fertilizing. Or just be patient for the current male to get better at the job.

How many tries has this male had?

 

The same would have held true for the meth blue. You can add it when they are eggs, but you want it out of the water by the time they hatch. Its not good for the wigglers.

Yes, 78f is a little cool. I'd bump it up to 80-82 (sorry I don't do Celsius lol) But still, 78 degrees vs 80-82 would not be deadly.

I want to reiterate though....your eggs are not dying. They were infertile. So they were rotting. And some will rot faster than others.

There is no medication that will prevent an infertile egg from "dying" because they were never alive to begin with. Yes, meth blue can prevent the development of fungus on the infertile eggs. But it won't magically make the infertile eggs fertile. So they will still be "Dead" eggs. There is literally nothing you can do about that other than finding a male that will do a better job fertilizing. Or just be patient for the current male to get better at the job.

How many tries has this male had?

That makes sense the angelfish layed their eggs on an plant however they must have found it very difficult because the plant wasn't attached to anything. It's supposed to be attached to a piece of wood. That explains why the ammount of fertilized eggs was so low. I never get this many infertile eggs that explains everything. Thank you for your help I am going to buy them a nice slate for the next time they decide to lay eggs hopefully next time there will be a lot more fertile eggs as usual.
And I won't add any medication either as I think this may have caused the few remaining wigglers to die.

 

That makes sense the angelfish layed their eggs on an plant however they must have found it very difficult because the plant wasn't attached to anything. It's supposed to be attached to a piece of wood. That explains why the ammount of fertilized eggs was so low. I never get this many infertile eggs that explains everything. Thank you for your help I am going to buy them a nice slate for the next time they decide to lay eggs hopefully next time there will be a lot more fertile eggs as usual.
And I won't add any medication either as I think this may have caused the few remaining wigglers to die.

And hopefully the parents choose to use the slate!!!! haha
I have nice spawning slates in my spawning tanks and the fish still often choose an anubias leaf or filter intake. lol Its like they KNOW that laying them on the slate means its more likely I will steal them!