My first free swimmers

I have free swimming angelfish fry in my breeding tank.

Father is a pb/pb with a single gold marble and single stripeless gene that i bought from Lisa in May.

Mother is a silver veiltail with possibly some other hidden genetics.

Eggs were laid on Sunday 15th July

The parents moved the eggs from the breeding cone to a nearby slate on Tuesday

On Wednesday definite wriggling could be seen.

This morning a few fry were taking the occaisonal excursion but were soon returned to the slate by one or the other parent.

Now ( 13:30 ) groups of fry keep escaping the parental guard and take a ride on the flow from the filter to the other end of the tank and have to be fetched back. They are keeping the parents so busy they don't seem to have time to eat their usual one o'clock frozen bloodworm. Most of the fry seem to be staying on the slate for now but there are what seems like hundreds of them and so just a small percentage escaping keeps both parents busy.

This is more stressful than having my own kids !

I started the brine shrimp hatcheries the other day. When should i start to provide baby brine shrimp for the angel fry ?

I wasn't going to post anything on here because i know that this is something that you all do every week, but i am so PROUD!

I can't post pictures because i have been not cleaning the tank while the parents had eggs and my 'phone won't see through the glass. I did do a small water change in the middle of the week ( i usually change 20% three times a week ) using my magic bucketless waterchange system, but this doesn't vacuum the bottom of the tank at all and so things really could do with cleaning up. I am itching to get the tank smartened up but i don't want to disturb a breeding cycle that seems to have gone exactly to script so far.

My plan is to vaccum the tank properly and restart the water changes as soon as all of the fry are free swimming and feeding.Then i might also borrow a digital camera from my daughter-in-law and get some decent pics.

Any and all advice gratefully received. I am currently wondering when to start feeding the BBS to the babies.

thanks everybody

gibbo

Start feeding the bbs either this evening or tomorrow morning. Feed sparingly, having sieved the & rinsed the bbs take a teaspoon and get a small amount on the end of the spoon, let no more than two small drips fall into the tank, that's more than enough!
Congratulations by the way, IMO it's the best bit about breeding & keeping angels, the day they go free swimming!

Thanks for that.

I am going for little and often.

I can feed three or four times a day without too much problem.

I did a small water change this evening, without vacuuming the tank or cleaning the glass. I will hopefully get back to a normal cleaning routine by about wednesday. Hopefully the parents will be able to tolerate my hands in the tank by then. Although the male isn't too keen on anybody even peering into the tank at the moment. I have been observing from a respectful distance with the aid of a magnifying glass.



Thanks again for your advice.

Sorry about the crappy 'phone pics

Looking good

Congratulations. Now the fun starts! Try cleaning the tank bottom without sucking up half the fry. Lol. It's impossible.

Yep, that will be Friday, or even Sunday if it takes me that long to pluck up the courage.

I am lucky in that i can do partial water changes withou having to syphon water out of the tank, but i do really need to get in there and clean up. Not just the bottom of the tank, but the spawning cone and slates need cleaning too.

How long before the fry grow "wings"?

They get their wings at about 7 - 10 days.