My Babies Are Swimming

My angelfish breeding pair have managed to get their 3rd batch to free swimmers. They did with their second as well but mom freaked out and ate them when we dimmed the lights at night. Dad has been the caretaker this time fighting mom off whenever he senses that she is starting to stress.

I was able to move about 25 percent of the free swimmers to a hang on the side breeding trap. I never even thought that the parents would be able to see them but sure enough they started trying to smash their way through the glass to get at them.

I am so excited they laid a huge clutch the day I got back from vacation and through trial and error we have been able to keep mom calm enough not to eat them.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to get the 2 panda cories out of the tank amd there is no way mom and dad were letting me try that with a clutch of eggs. I've given the panda cories veggies in hopes that they will go for those instead of the live food (aka angelfish fry). Let's see if they can keep the rest of the clutch safe and raise them. Here's to hoping and praying.

Oh I'm so excited!

 

Sounds so fun. I just got a new batch of mixed fry from my community tank.

 

Oh that sounds awesome. What are your parents?

I have a blue (possibly marble not really sure) and her mate is a marble koi which is actually her son according to their previous owners. It's going to be an interesting batch. I can already see pure white fry and dark fry.

 

I would feed the cories protein as they are carnivorous, otherwise they will still go after the easy food of fry.

 

I just put some blood worms in as well. Is there anything else I could feed the to discourage munching on the fry?

 

I use shrimp pellets as their main source of food for mine, I would feed them twice a day (how many do you have) to keep them full so they are less likely to gobble up babies.

 

There is 2 in the tank. I planned on upping their numbers after the angels raised this lot.
I tried to get them out and regime them but mom and dad were just not having it so they will have to stay in.
I'll run to the logs and get some shrimp pellets for them.
Thanks for the advise.

 

I would only put a couple shrimp pellets in each time you feed them.

 

Mom and dad started fighting yet again and by this morning their portion of the clutch was down to half. By the time I got home from work it was gone.

I debated moving more into the hang on the side breeder box this morning but was running short of time. Kicking myself now for not taking the time to save a few more.

I lost about 10 of the fry in the breeder box over night. So far no more today. I've been feeding the frozen bbs so far and have my first round of live bbs hatching.

They seem to be eating and swimming and happy. Ive attached a picture of the ones I managed to save.

As for mom and dad I figure I'll give them one more chance but this time I will move the cories out tomorrow and do a thorough cleaning on the tank and I will pull 60 to 70 percent of the clutch instead of just 25 percent.

I'll keep you all posted on how things go.

 

I feed them normal fish food and they seem to like it.

 

I have some hikarI first bites as well as fry started as well both of which are near powder form.

I also bought the eggs just to have options. The only store that carries food like this is 35 minutes away without traffic out the other side of town. With traffic it can take almost an hour just to get there.

I'm having a hard time telling if they are eating or not but I did notice the pure white ones had their bellies change to a golden brown so I'm assuming they are.

 

5 days in to free swimming and all is well. We have lost a few fry to natural causes, a few to getting over the divider into mom and dad's tank and a few to getting stuck in the sponge that is the divider. All in all its going well.
I am feeding live brine, frozen brine and hikarI first bites in rotation. They live the live and hikarI first bites the best.
Most of my pure white fry have been lost I'm sad to say. I think I have 4 or 5 left. I think they are albino their eyes are white and so are their bodies. Hoping I can keep these ones alive. They are the ones that like to jump the overflow into mom and dad's tank.



Update on mom and dad's spawn is I'm not so sure they did eat them after all. When I took the lid off completely I saw a bunch of dead bodies along the back of the glass above the water line. I think they may have been blown there and being so young and fragile died on impact. I'll have to adjust the filters next time around. Actually I'll have to do it in the next 24 hours as mom and dad will likely spawn on Sunday again.
Below are pictures of the remaining fry.






Ignore the food on the bottom of the tank please I just fed them and haven't cleaned up yet. Giving them time to graze as they love to graze off the bottom of the tank.

 

Mom and dad laid another clutch today. A rather large one on the slate provided instead of the side of the filter. Yah! And I got the cories out of the tank this time.

Just have to remember to shut off the u4 filter when they become free swimming. Hopefully 4th time is a charm and all is right in the tank for success for mom and dad to raise them. But just to be sure I will take some fry out and raise them once they get to the free swimming stage.

The week old fry from the last clutch are doing great. I'm wondering if I can combine the week old fry with upcoming free swimmers. They are 15 days apart from date of laying clutch one to clutch 2. If not I do have a divider that I can install in the fry tank to try keep them separated but the little fry are so small they might get through it anyways. I guess I could use floss but they tend to get stuck in that too. Any advice?