Moving Angelfish eggs

[gcalberto]

I have a pair of angelfish who spawn on a regular basis in a 50 gallon community tank I have, and I would like to move their eggs to a separate tank to raise the fry.

However, they always lay those eggs in the same corner of the tank on the glass, and not a leaf or some piece of decoration.

Does anyone know of a way (assuming it's possible at all) for me to move those angelfish eggs?

Here are some pics of them:

[Daniel]

I have never tried to move them off of glass. The eggs are very sticky and I suspect damage is likely if you try and detach them.

But, there is hope!

If it were me, I would lean a narrow strip of glass (like from a 10 gallon aquarium top) or plastic in the corner where they always breed. Then wait for them to lay eggs on your new insert. That way you can move the eggs to a hatch out tank.

Hatching the eggs and raising the babies separately from the parents is a little tricky as the eggs are prone to fungusing, but it is what a lot of pro angelfish breeders do. There is lots of documentation out there on how to do this.

[Daniel]

Pretty fish by the way.

[gcalberto]

3 minutes ago, Daniel said:

I have never tried to move them off of glass. The eggs are very sticky and I suspect damage is likely if you try and detach them.

But, there is hope!

If it were me, I would lean a narrow strip of glass (like from a 10 gallon aquarium top) or plastic in the corner where they always breed. Then wait for them to lay eggs on your new insert. That way you can move the eggs to a hatch out tank.

Hatching the eggs and raising the babies separately from the parents is a little tricky as the eggs are prone to fungusing, but it is what a lot of pro angelfish breeders do. There is lots of documentation out there on how to do this.

Thanks for the tip! I tried to put a slate for them to lay eggs on, but not in the same place they usually breed, and they completely ignored it. 

I also loved your idea about using the top from a smaller tank! It's really easy and ingenious, thanks! 

And yeah, I have some experience with raising eggs away from the parents. I used to do this a the time back when I bred cacatuoides and the famale I had would eat the eggs every time, even after 10+ spawns. 

[gcalberto]

5 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Pretty fish by the way.

Thanks! I also have two red devil angels (I'll post a photo below) in this tank that paired up, but they haven't bred yet. They do stand on the other side of the tank and it's pretty hilarious to see both couples engaged in a stare contest in the middle of the tank 🤣🤣🤣

[gcalberto]

*Update*

I just realized the parents actually managed to protect the eggs until they hatched and became wrigglers.

I used a turkey baster to suck the fry and move them to a separate container. Understandably the parents were not happy and attacked the me relentlessly. 

I then put some acriflavine in the container to help prevent fugus and took out some infertile eggs. Unfortunately, most of the infertile eggs were covered in wrigglers, so I didn't find a way to remove just those eggs. 

I can't remember the last time I saw methylene blue (which would be the ideal medication for this case) for sale where I live, so I can't use it. 

Not sure if it will work, but if you want I can keep you updated 

Edited July 27, 2020 by gcalberto

[Daniel]

This is great! Keep the updates coming.

[gcalberto]

On 7/27/2020 at 5:15 PM, Daniel said:

This is great! Keep the updates coming.

Day 3 of separate eggs. They are now fully in the wriggler stage and (surprise) wriggle all the time. There were some losses, but very few, considering the amount of eggs I managed to get.

The acriflavine did a great job at preventing the fungus from spreading. I now need to try and take the unfertilized eggs out of the container.

I also put in a mini heater to keep the temperature from falling too much

[Daniel]

That's a lot of baby angels!

[gcalberto]

Update:

Fry are now free swimming. I'm feeding them on vinegar eels, since my daphnia culture crashed a few days ago. 

Got quite a bit of fry, but a lot of dead too (maybe 10-15%). The ones that are alive seem to be doing fine

[gcalberto]

Update: Fry are developing, but still small. Had a lot of casualties, but still have maybe 50-100 fry left. They eat A TON. I switched to Hikari first bites and in the morning they are completely transparent, but get huge bellies all day after I feed them. 

I put an old glass lid next to where the couple spawned last time and of course, they completely ignored it and once again, spawned in the same place.... 

[Daniel]

What can you do? But you got baby angels last time, maybe you can get more from this batch.

[gcalberto]

Just now, Daniel said:

What can you do? But you got baby angels last time, maybe you can get more from this batch 

True! 

[gcalberto]

Update: some fry has been dying every day, but that has now that they are a bit bigger, it stabilized. I don't know what happened though. My guess is I couldn't keep the water parameters in my half gallon ice cream tub stable enough, but I'm not sure. 

I do 30% water changes daily and put in water from a seasoned aquarium. Here is a Pic from one of the fry. 

[Bill]

I actually found this thread googling. I'm going through the same thing right now. I actually have 3 batches going.  One from a nice pair of Koi and two from a pair of Petco angels (koi and black marble) that kept spawning in my community tank. The koi did a great job raising the first batch, but ate the eggs the second time, and the female was not eating well so I pulled the second batch of eggs so as not to stress here. A huge thanks to @Brian Scottfor advising me on exactly what to do to get her eating again (which was different from advise from two other experts)! Anyway, I know some experienced breeders say it's easier (and better yield) to hatch the eggs separately, but I found much easier to let the parents do it, if they can. I swear, it seemed like they even knew how to eat and swim better the first few times when with parents, like going right after the BBS rather than watching it drift by and taking days to learn to eat. I see why @Brian Scott prefers this method!

Anyway, I'm currently using two large glass jars with airstones submerged in a 10 gallon tank that has a heater in it. I take the jars out and place them on my desk in good light for feeding and water changes. Will move them into 10 gallon tanks with seasoned sponge filters soon by draining most of the water and pouring them into their rearing tanks. The first batch that were raised by the koi parents came out extremely well. Any that were lost were too small to notice, and I only found 1 dead body since they reached the "dart" stage. Only one or two obvious deformities out of about 190 - 200, but I have to examine them closely.