lmsmith Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 This morning I woke up and I had angelfish eggs from the angels I've been trying to breed for about a month now. When I got home tonight, they were all still there, and the parents were very attentive, so hopefully, they'll manage to hatch the young and raise them. I'm going to leave the babies with the parents because this is the first time I've had fertilized angel eggs. None of them have turned white, and the parents are fanning away. About 20 min ago, I looked into my community tank, and saw my rams laying eggs on the driftwood! So far they've laid about 100 eggs, and the mum's still at it. They've herded everyone away from that half of the tank, and I've taken the angels out of the tank to prevent eat-age. They've dug a nice deep hole next to the log in the sand, so I guess that's where the fry will live once they hatch. I'm so excited, even if they don't manage to hatch the eggs, at least I know that they're happy in the tank and are a pair! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imsweet Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Awesome for you, my corys had a field day laying eggs all over the tank today so i have collected most of them and have them in a seperate container floating in the tank. Must have been the weather huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted October 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 There's gotta be something in the weather, I'm noticing that my black widow tetras are looking a bit amorous as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 well done! re you going to leave the ram babies with the parents or separate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted October 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 As of this morning the rams were still very attentive to the eggs - they looked like they were tag-teaming. One would go off and eat, the other would hang out by the eggs, then the other one would come back, they touch noses, and swap. It's pretty cool to see. Because they're doing such a good job right now, I'm going to leave this spawn with the parents and see how they go. If I've got good parents, it'll be awesome to see how they look after the babies. Anyone know how long it takes the eggs to hatch? And are they wigglers for 3 days, or more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeh_buddy Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 O yay! Blue Rams, put my name down for some of your Blue Ram babies My male and female fighters were at it all day yesterday, now i have a big as nest with quite alot of eggs sitting comfortably in the nest with the male being a very tentative dad! I like Spring :bounce: :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted October 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Does anyone know how long the eggs take the hatch? Some sources say 60hrs, others say 7 days. Also, I'm beginning to have second thoughts about keeping the eggs with the parents - it would suck to have them hatch only for the parents to eat them a week later. If I take the eggs out, how long do you think it would take for them to spawn again?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 7 days for rams? mine hatched on day 3 and were wrigglers at day 2. they eat about 2 or 3 days after they hatch. i did raise mine with the parents though, and they spent all day fanning the eggs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted October 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 Yeah I thought 7 days was way too long, thats why I asked you guys Do you mean that the parents that fanned the eggs were good parents and didn't eat the babies?? How do they learn to be good parents? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 innate behaviour. all fish eat their babies for a reason. it isn't always because of things like "stress" or jsut because they are crap parents, lol.... it all depends on if you believe in darwin's theory of survival of the fittest. the parents will keep killing all batches until that one batch that is strong survives. it could be that after a few batches they are more confident, experienced (??? who knows what actually goes on in a fish's head lol)... then out of the kids that do survive, only the fittest, strongest will survive to maturity - thus ensuring a strong gene pool for the next generation. I let my rams kill off the fist few batches, and then they took care of the 1 batch that they deemed "fit". those babies grew up and were absolute stunners. I usually let fish act like they would in the wild. Now if you were breeding some sort of endangered fish.... lol... keep all the babies. oh also ive found that fry brought up by their parents made better parents as well (this isn't just me talking lol - there is a whole biology paper that blabs on about all of this lol)... haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted October 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 I did biology for a few years at uni and I know what you're talking about....I'm so tempted to take this lot out, and let them try to raise the rest. Hmmm, well I've got 24hrs-ish to decide what I'm going to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 yeh... they are surprisingly good parents... mine made sure that the pictus i had were kept far away.. male would chase them and flare him self up... have a go at this.. and let us know how it works out! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted October 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 This morning the rams had eaten about 1/2 the eggs. Some of the angel eggs had turned white (not viable eggs), but most of them were fine. When I got home tonight, there were about 70 wigglers with the angels. The ram eggs had hatched (could see a 'shell' where the eggs used to be), but I couldn't see any babies, so I can only assume that the parents ate them. I doubt it was anything else in the tank because the rams weren't letting anything near them. Later tonight I went down stairs, and the angels had eaten all the wrigglers. It sucks that all my babies have been eaten, but I guess that means I know I have 2 pairs, and when they spawn again, I might actually get fry for them to raise! :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracytrout Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 What a bummer Lauren BUT you have the right attitude so better luck next time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted October 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 My angels spawned again today, and I'm hoping that they'll be able to get the wigglers past about 10hrs old. My female ram is slowly getting fatter and fatter, and the male is very intent on chasing her and courting. I did a big w/c on the ram rank this evening, so hopefully they'll spawn next week when I do another w/c. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracytrout Posted October 24, 2008 Report Share Posted October 24, 2008 Well Done!! Will keep my fingers, toes and eyes crossed you have better luck this time round Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.