Selling Fish

[Daniel]

Today I am selling 40 Leopoldi Angels to a local fish store. I think what makes these attractive to the store is that all the fish are mature and they are of a desirable variety of angelfish. I sent a sample pair down to the store a few days ago so that the size and quality of the fish could be evaluated and these were sold almost immediately.

The hardest part was getting them out of a deep tank that has lots of tangled wood in it.

After draining about 400 gallons of water out there were many fewer hiding places for the fish. With the help of my wife we put ladders on either side of the tank, leaned in with nets in hand, and corralled the angelfish into an area where they could be safely retrieved.

At this point they are packed in 5 gallon buckets and ready for transport to the store today. I have kept back 6 fish, because I am leaning toward putting a pair into the 1930s Historically Accurate Planted Aquarium. Something like this from August 1934 Better Homes and Gardens:

 

 

[MickS77]

Transporting those buckets of fish is a good excuse for a few more USB Nano Air Pumps 🤔😁

[Andy's Fish Den]

Had you spawned the Leopoldi angels? If so, I am interested to learn some techniques as I have a group I would like to work with and try to spawn.

[Daniel]

7 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

Had you spawned the Leopoldi angels? If so, I am interested to learn some techniques as I have a group I would like to work with and try to spawn.

Yes, originally I purchased a group of six juveniles. Eventually they formed three pairs, and all three pairs would spawn in the large community tank. There was a lot of predation on the baby angelfish but the 2% that made it to adults are the 40 fish I am selling today.

The key to getting the angels to spawn was high quality food in generous amounts and clean water. Of course having a mature male and female goes without saying.

When the babies were small they ate primarily baby brine shrimp. Interestingly, when they were first free swimming they would pick at the sides of their parents similar to what baby discus do. I probably wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Daniel

[Daniel]

27 minutes ago, MickS77 said:

Transporting those buckets of fish is a good excuse for a few more USB Nano Air Pumps 🤔😁

I have several more USB Nano Air pumps being shipped now. 

[Andy's Fish Den]

2 hours ago, Daniel said:

Yes, originally I purchased a group of six juveniles. Eventually they formed three pairs, and all three pairs would spawn in the large community tank. There was a lot of predation on the baby angelfish but the 2% that made it to adults are the 40 fish I selling today.

The key to getting the angels to spawn was high quality food in generous amounts and clean water. Of course having a mature male and female goes without saying.

When the babies were small they ate primarily baby brine shrimp. Interestingly, when they were first free swimming they would pick at the sides of their parents similar to what baby discus do. I probably wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself.

Did you do anything special to the water? RO or anything?

One of mine I've noticed lately has become a lot more aggressive to the others when eating, I was thinking may be a male, but I haven't noticed him being nicer or favoring one of the others to think that they could be pair bonding. I've been doing twice weekly water changes on this tank and a couple others trying to induce spawning, now I'm going to have to start feeding more often.

[Daniel]

4 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

Did you do anything special to the water? RO or anything?

Yes, it is RO water, but I believe even if it wasn't RO water they would have bred all the same. That tank has RO because it was setup to breed Heckel discus (never happened). After the discus experiment I wanted something easy and the angels fit the bill. The angels were never picky about food, tank mates, or anything. My wife was very sorry to see them go. She says, 'best fish we've ever had'. And they were, but after several years, I just got itchy to make a change.

After they pair bond what you notice is that they hang out together and then begin to chase other fish out of their territory.

Feed the highest quality food you can get, blackworms work magic if you can get them. Keep the water clean. If you have good quality aged water frequent water changes will help.

Edited August 6, 2020 by Daniel

[Daniel]

First impressions are important and it was the first time I had sold fish to this store. I kept up good communication with the buyer so that they knew how many fish I was bringing and when. I made sure it was at a non-busy time for the store.

At the end of the transaction, the buyer said 'if you've got anything else, let us know, we are interested.'

Just what I wanted to hear.

[Daniel]

I asked the store if I could use their name and they said yes. They are 'The Fishroom' in Raleigh, NC and if you are looking for some mighty fine Leopoldi Angelfish now would be a good time to visit.

[Brandy]

Sadly, I think the flight might be cost prohibitive...