Hi Willowgirl2021 ! I have Angel babies myself
Although my babies are like 8 months now, and not really babies anymore.
The Question I have, how many babies are we talking about??
Advice I have:
1.Your
water parameters look good on the new tank, you should check your pH
KH and GH also just to be extra safe. More to come about moving fish in #4
2. you need to compare that tank to the tank with your babies in them. when you switch over, ideally you want water parameters matching as well as temperature, for a smooth transition. all things being equal, and then a move over.
3. I found it's helpful to let the previous tank go and get dirty water quality,
Nitrates to come up, more waste in the tank and so more decaying bacteria, this is "hardening off" of the fish. the ones with weak immune systems that will be constant problems to maintain healthy will appear out of this group doing this "hardening", a couple might die also with the weakest immune systems, but you'll know how "hardy" the fish actually are and how susceptible they are to water quality issues in the long run, unless really weak genetics, the majority will survive this and you can decide on if you want to deal with the weaker ones that will have fungus or bacterial problems every time it's getting close to
water change day. This hardening should then be followed by bringing both aquariums in line with each other in preparation for moving them. the fact is without hadening, those problems are going to appear when the water conditions slip, just easier to identify it earlier. it also makes for hardy fish if they go to a petstore, ones people can buy and put into their normal tanks, and not have weak fish die offs.
4. at first, move a group of 5 or a small test group of fish you could lose (like the ones identified as weak immune systems through the hardening process) if they don't make the transition, from there you might decide to acclimate the next group over an hour if it doesn't go well, or just continue moving if it does go well.
BUT I don't recommend moving all of them at once if something is wrong, you can lose all of them at the one shot.. move like 1-5, a sampling of your juveniles, give it a week, move 5 more, get a feel for how it's going to go, this also allows your bacteria colony which there's no way to gauge what it can handle or it's size accurately, time to size up to the load increase without totally crashing. The old tanks cycle and colony built with the fish as they grew, the new tank doesn't have this going for it, you have to take it slow and monitor for spikes. the colony will size up but you have to watch for where the limit is and give it time to multiply before adding some more. you can test with ammonia dosing, and removing the fish you have in there and see how long the cycle takes to clear the ammonia out, but since you have fish in there. I think it's likely ok and the pleco was just a weak fish.
5. Depending on how many you have, you might want to split them between the two tanks. One thing is for sure, when they mature and males and females appear, you will need both tanks to separate them out to keep the peace, and at that point I'd separate out males from females and a tank for each. At one year they should be maturing, some of mine at 8 months are showing signs of heightened aggression already but not quite there yet as far as mature and identifiable.
I ain't gonna lie, It's a lot of work to keep more than a half dozen to a dozen angels in a tank. and maintain the water quality. this is why how many you have is so important for how you proceed and how you go about the transfer and if you want to do daily water changes or every few days ect.
going from a 49 to a 55 gallon isn't much difference in water volume, the footprint is bigger though but water quality issues will remain the same unless the fish are split, which is why I suggest splitting them unless you just have a half dozen or so.
This is 3 weeks ago, 4 adult males, 2 gourami and 30 angel juveniles about 7 months, 72 gallons.
they eat a lot of food, they are bigger now, I still have to downsize how many I'm keeping out of this and send some more to the pet store again, it's been never ending on the ones I like but just don't make the cut as keepers, and too many still for me to keep long term but so hard to decide..... still it's a lot less from the 100 nickel sized juveniles or the 180 dime sized ones or the 300 fry I started with. which is my next point. if you can't do the work trying to maintain a tank that's overstocked,don't try it. it is a lot of work, and it can go really wrong. there's no shame is selecting the best to keep for yourself to enjoy that you can handle, and the rest going to a local pet store for someone else to enjoy. Again no idea on the amount of babies you have. just saying my experience was it was a heck of a lot and it's taken me the last 6 months of offloading angels to get to this point. Ideally I'll settle at between 6 and 12 male juveniles, maybe 15 with the adults I have.
I wish you the best of luck making the switch over, and would love to see your babies!
