Myxazin or methylene blue?

Hi guys,

Im new to the forum and breeding angels although I've kept angels for several years.

I have a young pair of phillipine blues that have spawned twice, first batch the eggs got eaten during the night (community 240l but under stocked) and the second batch I pulled.

I was advised to use myxazin instead of meth blue as the anti fungus but 95% of the eggs fungused in the fry tank. Most didn't fungus until days 3 and 4 so I do believe the majority of the eggs had been fertilised.

It's now day 8 and the only 5 remaining are trying to swim but end up on the bottom of the tank within a minute or so. Think they could all be belly sliders.

My main questions are:

1. Myxazin or blue meth for anti fungus?

2. Should I use dechlorinated tap water or not when I pull the eggs? There is no chloramines in our tap water.

3. Should I do the first water change with dechlorinated water once I see the first wrigglers?

4. I read somewhere to turn the eggs round when you pull them and place them the other way up in the fry tank in order to reduce fugus growth. Is there any truth in that??

5. Should the air stone be placed to flow over the eggs or just near the eggs?
Thanks

Dan

Hi Danny,
Welcome to the forum.
Personally I always leave the eggs with the parents, so have no experience of "pulling" eggs. So what follows is based on what I've read, rather than 1st hand experience.

1. There is some evidence that meth blue can damage developing embryos and causes an increase in the number of bellysliders. Meth blue will certainly knock back your filter bacteria, so if I was going to use anything, it would be myxazin.

2. Personally I would favour using water from the tank the eggs were laid in, if that's not an option then my next choice would be tap water that's been left to stand for several days, and which has similar chemical properties (pH, hardness, etc) to the water the eggs are in and is at the same temperature.

3. As long as the tank has a mature biological filter in it, then I see no need to do water changes until the fry are free swimming

4. I once read that changing the orientation of the eggs can cause developmental problems in the developing embryo resulting in bellysliders. I don't know what the evidence for this claim is, haven't tested it myself and can't remember where I read it. I suspect that if it can cause problems, this would probably be at a fairly specific stage of development, so would probably depend on how many hours after they were laid, the eggs were moved.

5. a very gentle flow close to, but not touching the eggs is all that's required.

Thanks for the quick reply,

In the fry tank I just have a mature sponge filter but I believe this doesn't need to be placed into the fry tank until they become wrigglers?

So if I use the water from the parents tank I'd need to use sponge filter the time the eggs are put in the fry tank?

Thanks

Dan

Hi Dan,
As I say, I've never gone down the artificial hatching route....
...as far as I'm concerned, the most important factors for raising healthy fish are good water quality & not overfeeding.
when it comes to not overfeeding I've learn't from bitter experience that too much food, especially in the first few weeks, is a very bad thing.
As to water quality, any level of ammonia or nitrite is likely to be harmful to the babies, whilst even slight changes in the kH or pH might potentially harm the developing youngsters. So if I was going to artificially hatch I'd use a filter from the off & water from the tank. That said, I know a lot of breeders don't go down that route, so the key thing is find a system that works for you.

Ok, thanks for your help.

Dan