Apparent Angel Fry Success Looms - Now What?

[Dacotah7]

For the last perhaps 3 months, since my 125g rebuild and planting, my Angel Fish have been pairing off, breeding and laying egss, only to loose the eggs as food for other non-mating Angels, Gouramis and nearly every other fish in the tank.

This pair became very territorial and dominates one half of the tank, the right half for the most part.

Thursday or Friday as I recall, they laid eggs on an giant Amazon Sword Leaf. On Saturday they laid a second nest on an adjacent leaf. I think they abandoned the first laying, or possibly moved it. Last night (Sunday) I did about a 40% water change because the water quality demanded it.

In the process I discovered the Rena XP-3 was barely working dribbling any output. I expected to find a plugged primary foam filter. Nothing in the filter reveled such obstruction. I fully serviced the filter properly, while thinking the problem was in the hose. It was. A hose with the Hydor Inline heater became kinked under the cabinet.

I wanted to do more than a 40% WC but doing so would have exposed the eggs to air. While I was working the left end of the tank, I tried to keep an eye on the nest and most of the fish on the right end. That was impossible so I hurried and did what had to be done, hoping to get all of the water back in and things back to normal. I did that, than found my nest of eggs were gone! Darn it.

A little later, I check everything in the aquarium, flow, temp, behavoir, etc. I noticed the fish are back in their old corners, a tank divided in two halves again. The mating pair are hovering in a new area close to their olld nest, a large rock with a nice patch of very healthy Java Moss. What the heck! In the middle of the WC, they moved the eggs, now with wiggling tails, into a secluded spot in the Java Moss. Later, about 1/2 hour after the timers powered off the lights, I inspected the new spot with a flashlight. They were gone again! I was sure they got sucked into the pump. Looking around some more, I discovered they were back on the Amazon leaf. Incredible.

Now I am not sure what to do. They are better egg care-takers / fry parents than I ever will be. The way I see it, besides maintaining the water quality, I have 3 issues to address:

* The nest is not very far, 6-8" away from the Rena XP-4 intake. I have to guard that intake with foam or something, or the future fry will get sucked in. Ditto the XP-3 on the other end of the tank, six feet away.

* Move the fry (snip the leaf of the Amazon and move it) with the parents to a dedicated breeder tank. I could set up my 30g, or buy a 5-10g for $5-$10 at the LFS. I have enough heaters, filters, established media and 40 gallons of aged water - tank ready - to top off the 125g, from which I would take water for a new set-up. The point is, I could easily make an instant working 30g tank, or other size if needed.
I am afraid the disruption, the stress of netting, moving and acclimation to a new surrondings are going to wreck the existing harmony, the pairing or the instinctive parenting. I am inclined to leave things alone.

Ideally a tank partion would be a good move at this point. That will be a challenge, given the substrate, a terraced rock wall down the length of the tank with roughly two levels, lower in front, higher in back and all kinds of plants all over the substrate.

If I can fabricate some effective partion (perhaps a fine mesh material), I could move the filter intake out of the nesting part. That would fix multiple problems.

* Feeding the fry.
I read this LINK, and every link it refers to. This ONE, seems the most helpful.

With any luck, I will have Angel Fry in the next few days.
This is Monday. We are committed to being gone for business this Friday morning to Sunday afternoon.

While I want to do everything possible to hatch and rear this brood, other than protecting them from the filter intake, I am inclined to let nature run it's course. I don't have much choice while we are gone.

Any advice, especially from successful Angel Breeders?

[Lady Hobbs]

Fish will get nervous and eat their own eggs, as well. You messing around probably upset them as do others in the tank with them. Next time cut off the leaf containing the eggs and put them in another tank with fungal remover. But keep in mind, if you want to raise angels, you will need probably another 55 gallon tank for a grow out tank.

[Dacotah7]

Thanks Lady Hobbs.

Yep, messing with this pair is not helpful. I skipped a day of feeding and the parents have not taken much time to eat lately. Last night I tried to help them with that by feeding flakes to the other fish first on the far end of the tank. While those were busy eating, I feed the parents frozen blood worms. That worked for a little while. The parents did eat, but after food started getting stirred up by feeding activity in both ends, the intruders were over the nest. Another Angel dove into the nest and all heck broke loose. One parent sucked up mouth full of eggs while the other chased the intruder. With a long pickup tool, I helped chase the rest away. The nest was distrubed and ended up with a some eggs on a new leaf and some on the orignal leaf. I thought they may have abandoned the orignal nest but his morning all was back to the orignal place and lively than ever.

I learned my lesson: Leave it alone. If it aint broke, don't fix it.
My attempt to help, caused problems.

This potential success at hatching fry blind-sided me. I was not planning it just yet. But now that I hae this wiggling mass of jelly (egg sacs with wiggling tails) and a great set of parents doing an excellant job, I so want to help them to success.

Not having time to order foam filters for the pump intakes and doubt any of the LFS nearby (Petco / PetSmart) will have what I need, I figured out how to fabricate my own with what I have. I have enough extra foam to work with, an AC-70 foam Block and the Foam Pads from my old Fluval 404's.

I will use those to cover the intakes, and slip fine filter mesh bags over those and rubber band or tie them in place. The foam will provide a larger intake area spreading out the suction area, while the mesh bags reduce the size of what can get sucked in.

I am off to the fish store to see what they have for fry food, brine shrimp eggs, whiteworm culture, and water fleas ((Daphnia). I am also going to start a culture of Infusorians.

I have not thought about a grow-out tank yet, but my spare 30g has been a saviour. It will give me time to think and plan properly. If half of the eggs survive I am going to have one heck of a lot of Angels, perhpas around a hundred. I don't know, it looks like a lot; in any case too many to keep. I'll raise them and sell or trade them. My hope is for some success and a lot of learning in the process. Along the way it has created a lot of excitement and hope. :)

[ldoerr]

Good luck with the angel fish fry.

[Dacotah7]

Thank you.

I mis-stated the number. After I posted last, I took a second look, I doubt there are a 100. Since and especially overnight the nest of activity is diminishing.

If I were not leaving in the morning, I would remove them from the 125g at this time and place them in a dedicated tank. As I will be gone for 3 days, and with the parents tending to them, I think they are better off left alone. I am letting nature run its course, keeping my fingers crossed. In nature they don't have a human fussing with them and that works rather well.

If all works out, I will be super-pleased. If it does not, I will be more knowledgable, better prepared and super-motivated to try again, seeking success.