Adequate Fry Tank?

[shortymet55]

I have a 5.5gallon tank sitting around. If I put in one of those homemade filters (Fish Food Containers), a few fake plants and a light, will this be a good tank for raise fry in? Do I need gravel? I have extra gravel, so I can use that, but i hear bare bottom is easier to clean. My angelfish keep eating the eggs, so I'm gonna try to raise them. How should I do this? They usually lay eggs on a amazon sword leaf. Would this procedure work?

1.) Have homemade filter running in big tank to get it ready. Place in tank when eggs come.
2.) Tear Amazon Sword leaf with eggs off and put in tank. (Where do I put the leaf? On top of filter where bubbles are?)
3.) Put some of that anti-fungal medicine into the tank. (What is it called? And dosage?)
4.) Once hatched, feed bbs
5.) Once big enough, leave some in 5.5 gallon, rest go back into big.
6.) Once big enough to sell, sell all babies (Raising for fun, not to keep)

Thanks

 

[Inchworm]

Hi shortymet55

I'll move your thread over to New World Cichlids where it would be more likely to be seen by members who have had experience raising Angels.

 

[juanveldez]

not sure about the placement of the eggs vs the filter as I don't breed cichlids. the big nastys that I keep need even more room to breed. but as for some of it I can help.


1) no you don't need gravel in fact many breeders advise against because when you go to vac the tank and clean up the food and what not you can crush and kill the fry in the gravel.

I will shoot T this topic and hopefully he can help as he breeds angels, hope one day to make the 6 hour trip down there for a weekend or something.

 

[Tolak]

Those 5.5's are great hatching tanks for angels IMO, large enough for my big hands to work in, small enough for newly hatched fry to find food & easy frequent water changes. No plants are needed, they are just one more thing to have to clean around. Newly hatched fry tens to hang at the bottom at first, where filth and bacteria settle. Any substrate makes for a better place for this unwanted situation to hide itself, this is the reason for bare tanks.

1.) You will need to cycle the filter, running it in a mature tank is the way to do it. I use an air stone on spawns, until they are swimmers, this is due to the ant-fungals/bacterials that I use. These products would kill nitrifying bacteria.

2.) My angels spawn on a piece of pvc or slate for the most part. I run a light stream of bubbles from the air stone over the eggs.

3.) I can tell you what works for me, it is best to start with fresh dechlorinated tap water in a hatching tank, and a few drops of methylene blue per gallon. For my water; 7 drops/gal meth blue, 3 drops/gal Maroxy, 2 drops/gal acriflavin. If you consider the day they spawn day 0, I start 50% water changes on day 3. By day 7, when they are swimming this removes enough of the additives to put in a cycled filter with no damage to the nitrifying bacteria.

4.) Bbs is the best thing for angel fry.

5.) Angels will sprout fins at 2-3 weeks swimming, this is when I move them from the 5.5 to a 29. This is also when I start to introduce finely ground flake. A clean coffee grinder, the small electric type are excellent for atomizing flake food. It reduces the volume by 75%, so keep this in mind & feed sparingly.

6.) I usually keep the top 10% of a spawn, which often becomes the top 5% after watching and deciding which would become the best future breeders. This is also a good CYA move, in the event a shop or customer has a problem with your fish you still have some of the same spawn, which hopefully has no problems. I've never had this happen, but it is a good procedure to follow.

HTH, good luck with the angels!