What Are The Eggs?

[mhancock]

Saw these when I got back from work today, odd thing was that no fish were guarding them and many fish were helping themselves to a snack! Maybe if it was the first time for the fish then they did not know what they were doing.....

I'm guessing that they are angelfish eggs, am I right? There are also corys and danios, I think the rest of the fish are live bearers, and the gourami are all female!

As they were being eaten I took off the leaves and left them floating in the nursery tank - was this the right thing to do?

Sorry for all the questions (but that's what the forum is for, right!?), but how exciting!!!

 

[BerryAttack]

Saw these when I got back from work today, odd thing was that no fish were guarding them and many fish were helping themselves to a snack! Maybe if it was the first time for the fish then they did not know what they were doing.....

I'm guessing that they are angelfish eggs, am I right? There are also corys and danios, I think the rest of the fish are live bearers, and the gourami are all female!

As they were being eaten I took off the leaves and left them floating in the nursery tank - was this the right thing to do?

Sorry for all the questions (but that's what the forum is for, right!?), but how exciting!!!

View attachment 68030

clear yellow/amber are fertilized. the white ones are bad.
look to be angelfish eggs.. what are the angelfish doing? do they swim together and how big is the tank?

 

[mhancock]

Tank is 225l, 4 Angels in it and they mostly swim together, no obvious pairs though.

Had another thought - should I avoid big water changes?

 

[star4]

keep an airstone running near the leaf the eggs are on to simulate the parents fanning the eggs, remove with tweezers all the white ones, the fungus in these will spread to the other eggs rapidly. Daily partial wc on the tank the eggs are in to keep the water clean to help with fungal problems and hopefully in 3 days the eggs will start hatching into little fish. Dont feed them until the eggs sack has completely gone and continue careful daily wc. As soon as the egg sack has gone crush up some flake food into almost a powder and start feeding. Micro/banana worm cultures can also be fed to baby fish, try ebay there is usually someone selling some on there or decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. As they get bigger you can feed larger foods good luck and congratulations

 

[fluttermoth]

Please don't think I'm saying you've done the wrong thing; I don't think that at all, but next time it might be nice to leave the eggs with the parents.

It might take them a few goes, and to be fair some angels never get the hang of it, but they might learn to look after them themselves. There's been some research done (please don't ask me where; it was a few years ago and I can't now remember where I read it!) that fish need to have been parented to know how to be parents themselves (which is, of course, why some pairs never do manage to raise a brood) and it's a shame to keep breeding fish that are less and less able to be able to do it naturally, especially as they're not rare or anything like that.

If they do mange to raise a brood, it's the most lovely thing in the world to watch, so it's definitely worth giving them a few chances.

But I don't blame you at all for wanting to have a go at raising them yourself when the parents have abandoned them Best of luck with them; I do hope they hatch out and do well for you. Follow star's advice and you won't go far wrong

 

[mhancock]

....remove with tweezers all the white ones, the fungus in these will spread to the other eggs rapidly. Daily partial wc on the tank the eggs are in to keep the water clean to help with fungal problems and hopefully in 3 days the eggs will start hatching into little fish. Dont feed them until the eggs sack has completely gone and continue careful daily wc. As soon as the egg sack has gone crush up some flake food into almost a powder and start feeding. Micro/banana worm cultures can also be fed to baby fish, try ebay there is usually someone selling some on there or decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. As they get bigger you can feed larger foods good luck and congratulations

Thank you, have done, and removed some more on day 2.

 

[mhancock]

Please don't think I'm saying you've done the wrong thing; I don't think that at all, but next time it might be nice to leave the eggs with the parents.

It might take them a few goes, and to be fair some angels never get the hang of it, but they might learn to look after them themselves. There's been some research done (please don't ask me where; it was a few years ago and I can't now remember where I read it!) that fish need to have been parented to know how to be parents themselves (which is, of course, why some pairs never do manage to raise a brood) and it's a shame to keep breeding fish that are less and less able to be able to do it naturally, especially as they're not rare or anything like that.

If they do mange to raise a brood, it's the most lovely thing in the world to watch, so it's definitely worth giving them a few chances.

But I don't blame you at all for wanting to have a go at raising them yourself when the parents have abandoned them Best of luck with them; I do hope they hatch out and do well for you. Follow star's advice and you won't go far wrong

I agree about keeping them with parents, many articles say how many tank reared angels do not know how to parent as they have not been parented (sadly, this is similar to some of the young people that I work with), however if I had left them in tank there would have been no eggs left. At the moment I don't have capacity to isolate parents and fry.

Apparently the first batch of eggs can sometimes be infertile too.

Thanks for the advice though, and one more question:
With daily little water changes (rather than weekly big ones), would the fry be OK without dechlorinator? I know that the bacteria will be fine with this. Or would I be better with rainwater from the garden collectors - which I could leave in a bucket overnight first to warm up?

 

[mhancock]

More of the eggs (half of what's left) have turned white, so I guess I need to remove those too... is this normal for a first batch?

 

[fluttermoth]

Oh, that's a shame, but very normal for a first brood. They'll get better at it, I'm sure!

As to water changes you can use either normal dechlorinated tap water, or rainwater, but not 'raw', chlorinated tap water.

Young fry are quite delicate and, as you'll be wanting to do fairly large water changes, then dechlorinated is a must.

 

[mhancock]

PS - just found this - does anyone disagree?


"If you move them to a breeding aquarium during their first spawning they might be confused and stop the spawning process. It is normal for the parents to eat the eggs from their first spawning, and if this happens the female will usually deposit eggs again after just a few weeks. "

Oh, that's a shame, but very normal for a first brood. They'll get better at it, I'm sure!

As to water changes you can use either normal dechlorinated tap water, or rainwater, but not 'raw', chlorinated tap water.

Young fry are quite delicate and, as you'll be wanting to do fairly large water changes, then dechlorinated is a must.

OK - thank you I hope that by removing the eggs I have not put them of spawning.....

Will use the rain water!

 

[fluttermoth]

No, I'd agree with that statement. Once they've started breeding, they'll usually carry on.

As an aside, do you not use dechlorinator?

 

[mhancock]

No, I'd agree with that statement. Once they've started breeding, they'll usually carry on.

As an aside, do you not use dechlorinator?

Yes, as I normally do a very large water change (50-80%) most weekends using hoses. If I am doing a small water change, less than 20%, then I do not use de-chorinator.

With the eggs, though, I did not want to be adding prime every day with a small water change (am doing 10% a day at the moment with the eggs) - surely all that sulphur could be just as bad as the chlorine? What do you think? Using the water butts in the garden is a good solution for now.

 

[mhancock]

I'm going to feed them boiled egg yolk when they are ready I think (4-5 days), has anyone done this - any advice?

Thanks,


M

 

[mhancock]

Bump

Has anyone any good advice about feeding fry egg yolk?

 

[fluttermoth]

It's a good food, but does foul the water, so don't use it unless you're prepared to do large water changes after a few hours. You don't want to leave it in longer than that, IMO.