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| Incubating Angelfish Eggs |
| One of the things I have been extremely successful at doing is incubating Angelfish eggs.So I thought I would write this process for others to follow so that they maybe benefit from my success as well. The following comments are a common occurance with Angelfish, "I'm so Excited my Angels have laid eggs" "Now What do I do?????" Do as I did my first time, stay up half the night in excitement and curiosity until my eye lids wouldn't work...then fell asleep for a few hours to wake up and find all the eggs gone. I'm sure I'm not alone in this department, infact I would probably be hard pressed to find anyone involved with Angelfish, that hasn't had this happen to them at least once. Well I'm here to tell you to relax, you are not alone nor are you the first one to go through this.If you are serious about raising Angels and have the tank space to do it, then incubating is the easiest way to go. |
| STEP 2. The Incubating Jar, Once the spawning pipe is in the incubating jar add the Methyl Blue, turn on the air diffuser, turn off the lights on the tank and kick back, time to relax(it's time to let nature take its course). Day 1 24 hours from spawn. Not much to do this day just make sure the water level is still above the eggs on the spawning pipe and the water temp in the 10 gallon tank is constant at 80 degrees. Some people like to remove any eggs that have turned white, I leave them alone and may add 3-5 more drops of Methyl Blue to help prevent the decaying eggs from contaminating the live eggs. Day 2 48 hours from spawn. Same as day 1. Do Not Add anymore Methyl Blue. Day 3 72 hours from spawn. Today you should start to see wigglers on the spawning pipe. They will look like little hairs growing out of the eggs (its not algae so leave them alone). This day I stir up any eggs that may have settled on bottom of jar, this helps with them hatching out later. Don't worry the eggs are tougher then most people realize. Day 4 96 hours from spawn. Today is time to start water changes on the incubating jar. Before I change the water I swirl the spawning pipe around in the jar stiriing up the eggs that have fallen off the pipe and this also shakes the remaining eggs off the pipe, don't worry if they all clump together on the bottom of jar, this is natural. After all the eggs have dropped off the pipe i remove it from the jar (it's use for this spawn is done, I clean it and put it back in the tank with the parents). Time to change some water. I do a 50% water change on the jar this day, I use a piece of stiff tubing attached to a piece of green tubing and use a Baby's ear ball (local drug store) to suck out the old water being careful not to suck up any of the babies or eggs.The new water has been aged at least 24 hours heated to 80 degrees and treated with NovAqua and I syphon it into the jar through the green tubing.Do Not Add more Methyl Blue as it is no longer needed. Day 5 You should start to see the odd free swimmers today. Just do your 50 % water change on the incubating jar same as day 4. Relax they don't need any food yet,.however make sure your microworm cultures available and all your Baby Brine Shrimp Hatchery equipment and supplies ready to go. Day 6 Same as Day 5 do your 50% water change on the incubating jar.Stir the jar as well to help keep the bottom clean( I use a pice of stiff tubing to stir them up and let the air diffuser keep them suspended). Day 7 Same as Day 6 do your 50% water change today. The water color should almost be clear by now from the water changes and your babies that aren't free swimming, will be clinging to each other on the bottom of the jar, do not to worry. By the end of the day I usually add a Q-Tip full of microworms to the jar for the free swimmers that may need it. I usually stir the bottom up once more before I go to bed. Day 8 Do a 50% water change on the jar in the morning. I then add a Q-Tip full of microworms to the jar or 3 to 4 drops of washed Baby Brine Shrimp(use a eye dropper - local drug store). At the end of the day I slowly tip the incubating jar over into the fry tank and leave the jar lying on its side for the babies to swim out of over the next hour. At the end of the hour if any left in jar I tip it almost upside down careful not to shake out any of the junk left in the jar out into the tank. After the babies are out of the jar I feed them once more with Baby Brine Shrimp. |
| STEP 1. Planning Ahead, The nicest thing about Angelfish is that once they reach maturity and start spawning you only have to wait 7-14 days for the next spawn to take place. a) Spawning Pipe, After the first spawn deposited to the intake tube of our H.O.T. filter had disappeared, it was time to start planning for the next spawn.I looked every where locally for a spawning slate but no one was selling them and all the mail order ones were too expensive so I went to the local hardware store and bought a 1" diameter piece of white plastic PVC pipe (the kind used for underground lawn irrigation systems $1.49 for 10' length)cut off a piece 14" long(any kind of saw works to cut the pipe) and attached a plastic elbow ($0.29) to one end and leaned the pipe in one of the back corners of a 10 gallon tank with the elbow hooked over the top. It took the Adults about 5 minutes to figure out what it was when I first added it and then they started cleaning it and laid eggs on it inside of 2 hours. Eurriiiickaaa!!! b) Parents tank, I set up a 10 gallon tank for the spawning pair. I filled tank with tap water and treated with 1 teaspoon of NovAqua(LFS) and placed a sponge filter (http://www.Angelsplus.com) in the opposite back corner from the spawning pipe. Be sure to use a cycled sponge filter, one that has all the good bacteria already developed in it.Turned on the air to the sponge and let it circulate so that any chlorine present dissipated at least 24 hours before I try adding fish. I also added a tank heater to bring water temperature up to 78-80 degrees Farinheit.We are really blessed in our area, the city water seems to be conducive to Aquactic life forms with little to no extra treatments required.I safe guard with the NovAqua just incase we get any heavy metals from the houses pipes. Some people believe that Angels require higher larger tanks for breeding, I will not disagree with them, but I do know that I have had great success with the 10 gallon tanks providing I keep the tank cleaned well and 20-30% water changes daily. c) Incubating Jar, there are lots of different ways to do it, but I have found the least expensive and easiest one is a plastic wide mouth 1 gallon jug from the local grocery store or a glass 1 gallon pickle jar. The choice is totally yours, just be sure to clean the jars really well before trying to use. I also bought a piece of stiff tubing and a plastic air diffuser with some green air tubing from the Local Fish Store(LFS). Also 2 plastic air line valves, a plastic "T" and a clothes pin .I'll explain how its all used later on this page. d) Incubating/Fry starter Tank, I set up a 2nd 10 gallon tank .I filled it 3/4 full of tap water and added 1 teaspoon NovAqua added a heater in one corner. Next I attached the "T" to the air pump with a 3 foot piece of green tubing. Next added a 1 inch piece of green plastic tubing to each side of the "T" and attached the 2 valves, 1 on each side. Then I attached one of the valves to the stiff tubing for the incubator and attached another piece of tubing from the other valve to the sponge filter (this way you can use one air pump to run both air devices).Turned on the air supply to the sponge (leave the other valve closed until you add the spawning pipe with the eggs), let the water circulate and heat 78-80 degrees farenheit in the tank. The incubator jars temperature will equalize with the tanks temperature with out needing a seperate heater for both tanks. I filled the incubating jar to with in 1 inch of the top with fresh tap water and treated with NovAqua(LFS), then stood the Incubating Jar in the 10 gallon tank making sure that the tanks water level stays below the top of the jar. I added the stiff tubing to the jar, attached it to the top of the jar with the clothes pin and the air diffuser at the bottom end of the stiff tubing. Once the spawning pipe was added to the incubating jar I turn on the air vigourously so that the water in the incubating jar is circulating well. Then I add 10-12 drops of 5% Methyl Blue (http://www.Angelsplus.com). (2-12 hours after the eggs are laid on the spawning pipe, I removed the pipe from the parents tank and add it to the incubating jar). Make sure that the eggs on the pipe are below the water surface in the jar. e) Baby Brine Shrimp/Microworms, You need to have food available for the babies that they can survive on. I have tried finely ground flakes but the safest and healthiest is to cultivate your own Baby Brine Shrimp and Microworms. BBS eggs can be purchased from Steve at (http://www.Angelsplus.com). Get the best quality eggs you can as you will need less to fill those empty Angelfish tummies. Microworm Cultures can be purchased from the Bug Farm at http://www.livefoodcultures.com . f) Home Made BBS Hatchery, For this I set up three empty 2 Quart Soda bottles I cut a hole in the center of each plastic cap and pushed a piece of stiff tubing (LFS) through the cap until it reached the bottom of the bottle. Then attached a piece of green air line tubing(LFS) to the top of each. The other ends of the green tubing were attached to a plastic 3-way gang valve (LFS). Next a piece of green tubing was attached between the valves input and the air pump(LFS). g) The water of the Brine Shrimp Hatchery, I used a 1 gallon plastic jug filled it with hot tap water added 1/4 teaspoon NovAqua and then 8 Tablespoons of Doc Wellfishs Aquarium Salt(LFS) and shake it well to dissolve the salts. h) The Grow Out Tank(s), I use 55 gallon tanks for growing the fish out to a size large enough to be sold or traded. The number of tanks I use depends on the number of fry spawned...for 2-300 fry spawn a 55 should be big enough to raise the fry to the size of a quarter before you will need to find other accomendations. Any spawns larger I use multiple 55 gallon tanks so as not to cause over crowding. |
| STEP 3 Raising the fry, Once the babies are in the 10 gallon tank remove the incubating jar and continue feeding the fry BBS 2 times daily. Change 50% of the tank water every day to keep water and tank clean from the feedings. Maintain the tank water temperature at 80 degrees. Cull any deformed babies as you notice them. After the babies are about 4 weeks old I start them on Fry Food #2 from Steve at AngelsPlus and supplement there diets with freeze dried Brine Shrimp and frozen Bloodworms from LFS. and start introducing them to crushed Angelfish Flakes. |
| Basic List of Materials To Spawn & Raise Angels using an Incubating System 2 - 10 gallon tanks with canopies and lights. 2 - 55 gallon grow out tanks with canopies and lights 3 - 50 Watt Submersible tank heaters 2 - 200+ Watt Submersible tanks heaters 1 - 35 gallon Garbage Can(pre-treating/aging/heating water for changes) 2 - 1 gallon plastic Wide Mouth Jars( 1 for Incubating, 1 for Mixing Salt water) 1 - 25 foot roll of green air line tubing 2 - 36" pieces of clear stiff tubing 4 - Air Sponge Filters(seeded if not already cycled) 1 - Bottle Methyl Blue 1 - Bottle NovAqua 1 - 36 oz. package Doc Wellfishs Aquarium Salt 1 - Can Brine Shrimp Eggs. 1 - Starter Culture Microworms.(optional) 1 - 5 way air valve system 1 - Air pump(Make sure it puts out enough volume to supply all your equipment) 1 - piece 1" plastic PVC pipe with an Elbow. 1 - Baby Brine Shrimp Hatchery Miscellaneous Flake Foods for Angels. |
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