8/8/07 - Greetings! This is my first blog about this batch of angelfry. The parents just laid a bunch more eggs. Dad is a White Koi Angel and Mom is a Chocolate Leopard. I'm thinking Daddy is going to be moved to my other aquarium for a bit. They need to stop doing this for a while. But this time I've got the eggs out, I know they were laid today, so it'll be cool to actually see everything from the very moment of coming into being:)

8/11/07 - The new eggs just started to hatch this evening. My goodness they are tiny! Just the size of a grain of sand!

8/19/07 - Babies are now free swimming and eating 3 times a day. Everyone so far seems happy!

8/24/07 - Everything's doing great! The little ones are doing great! I think the 50% every other day water changes have been helping big time. Shoot, now I want to win the lotto or something and have a room of fish!!! :)

8/27/07 - Everyone so far doing well! The babies are growing. I've got videos now if anyone's interested. It's silly I know, but fun:) I'll upload them from youtube to the below mod.

9/3/07 - Okay, I started to think that the 5 gallon was getting too small, so I moved babies into the 10 gallon. The regular filter that I had is too strong for the little ones, so the sponge filter is back in there and all are doing well. Today, I'm going to Home-Depot to get 2 pieces of plexiglass cut. I'm going to set up my other 55 gallon up here and section the tank in thirds. Then the older and any younger babies can all be in the same tank and it'll be eaiser to keep them all. Once they are large size and until I can sell them, I still have my 75 outside (got to get it cleaned out) and we'll be good to go!

9/11/07 - More Videos! Now, I've got the 55 set up with the divider all in place and ready to go, only problem now is, the dresser that I was first going to put the tank on, isn't strong enough to hold that much weight. So now I'm in the market for a big strong but cheap dresser:) But everyone's doing well!!!

10/8/07 - Sorry for the delay. We still don't have a strong enough dresser for the 55, but couldn't wait any longer as the ten gallon was way too small and getting to hard to keep clean. So I put the 55 on the floor by our bed and put the babies in there. I counted as I went and OY! we've got 102 baby angels!!! I'll get some new pics up soon as they are so pretty, as I was transfering them, I noticed a few have a blueish sheen on them, so pretty! The bigger ones are about dime to nickel size in the body now. Almost time to start finding homes for them. But everyone is doing well. I don't make the brine shrimp as much for them anymore. They are eating frozen bloodworm and cyclops and crushed flake food. Way too fun!!!

One thing that I've learned is that most people who raise fish cull them when they are young. They take out any of the fry that have deformities. Now, I totally understand that as we don't want those to enter into the breeding population of fish and it is nature that these wouldn't live that long anyway. (Nemo wouldn't really have lived, sad to say) But I missed this and by now thes guys are way too large for me to feel good about doing this. Luckily for me, I've only one out of that many fish that has a problem. I'm calling him Nemo because of that reason. He's got a notch in his head. He's perfectly healthy otherwise, just a strange bump. He's too old for me to "get rid of" though, so I'm putting him in my adult tank.

10/20/07 - We've now got several that are ready for their new home. I have a nursing home that I'm going to donate a few to once they have their new tank set up and acclimated. Then there's a petstore a bit down the road that will buy a few.

10/24/07 - Sold my first 4 babies to a lady. I'm very excited and hopes that she keeps in touch about them...lol I know silly. My Nemo fish has amazed me as I realized that I did an experiment without knowing it. Since I've put him in with the adults he's grow 2xs as fast as his siblings. I took him out and put him back in with the others today as I wanted to clean out the adult tank and was shocked to see the difference in size! Must find out about that.

12/3/07 - Okay just a bit that's gone on with these guys. There are about 35-40 left...no not because of die offs, actually I've only had one die that I know of because the poor thing jumped:( Otherwise, a local petstore Frank & Pegs in Charlotte has been buying them from me in exchange for frozen fish food...they are offering a great deal on the exchanges, so I'm quite happy. Then I've sold 5 to a lady that found my post on Craig's List (also link to the side) And there's 2 other pet stores interested in them. So this is good!

Nemo has found a forever home. of course I didn't sell him, but gave him to a very nice lady for free (wouldn't be right for me to sell a fish with a deformity) but she loves him andhe's now happy with 2 of his siblings in a 45g with a few mollies (live food!!! but we won't go there...lol)

2/2/08 - It's now Feb (duhh) I've got 10 of these babies left..well not babies anymore! They are quarter to half dollar size now. I've learned in raising this bunch that keeping them all together as I've done, even though they are in a 55g, makes their growth slower. The larger ones put off a pheromone that slows the growth of the rest of the young. So they aren't growing nearly as fast as the few I put in the adult tank. Strange eh? So that's why my Nemo fish grew so large compared to his siblings. The ones that I am keeping are perfect in shape and coloration and so I will use them in future breeding projects. I have them in with a few others of their size that I bought from other places. One german blue blusher, a platimum and a gold marble are in there as well. To keep the tank on the cleaner side I also have 3 black kulli loaches and an albino algae eater. For now till these are old enough to spawn, I will post about others of my fry.

5/9/08 - Wow! things have been happening in the angel household! I now have 15 tanks set up in this house totaling 299 gallons! (yes our house is about to fall down from weight) My goal now is to turn the garage, at least a good portion of it into a fish room. I've got three pair of breeding angels in their own tanks...so far only one will semi parent raise, the other 2 are egg eaters, but still young, so they may grow out of it. I have a 10 and a 5 on my kitchen counter with newborn fry and a bit older fry. I've learned a few things that I've changed with my babies. I hope this'll help you...I'm going to set up a new module here on how I set up my egg hatching/rearing/grow out tanks. As for the above babies, I've one left that I will keep, the rest were all sold! My parents have 3 that when they are interested in egg laying, I will take back and give them some younger ones (they help me grow a few babies at a time out) Lots going on here!

What you'll need.....
~ 5 gallon tank
~ medicine dropper (I use old ones from my kids infant tylenol)
~ sponge filter and workings
~ wine cork
~ java moss
~ fishing line
~ jr heater
~ suction cup from heater of other

I keep 5 gallon tanks around the house that I have set up and ready to go. I have 2 different kinds both of which work equally well for me.

The little 5g glass rectangular tanks I put in a smaller corner triangular sponge filter in one corner of the tank.
Generally when you get a small heater, it comes with a suction cup, I use this cup on the bottom of the sponge filter so that the sponge isn't laying directly on the floor of the tank...this way babies won't get stuck and smushed.
Then I use a JR heater that you can get at your local fish store (lfs) or walmart. It keeps the temp pretty well perfect for the babies.
Now here's where I do things a bit differently than anything I've read. I've got tons of java moss in my other tanks. It's great for growing tiny food for fry/shrimp and the like. I use a wine cork and fishing line and tie a bunch of the moss to one side of the cork. This makes the plant float and trail down into the water. Yep, there's a reason for this which I'll get into shortly:)
That's it for setting up of this tank. (course use water conditioners if you don't already have well water)

Now for my other 5g tank which is the Eclipes brand, it's basically the same as above, but I do keep the filter going when there are no fish, or just eggs which haven't hatched yet. I keep a round sponge filter at the bottom of it instead of the strainer thingy they generally have on it. everything else is the same as above.

Okay! Your pair has spawned and now you've got eggs! I use a cup or pitcher large enough to fit whatever the parents laid the eggs on into. Now my fish are mean and I expect to get attacked while transfering the eggs...it's scary, but doesn't hurt:) I try to scare Dad into a corner with a net and leave it sitting there while I'm moving the eggs. Then keeping them in water the whole time, I move them into the hatching tank. Either place the eggs over the sponge filter so the bubbles can run past them...not with any force though, you don't want them getting knocked off! If you can't situate that, then run an airline with a bubble stone so the bubbles go just by the eggs, you want to keep the water moving by them. Then you wait a few days.

Once they hatch, (it's awesome to see those little tiny wigglers!!!) this is where the java moss and med dropper comes into play. The unfertilized eggs will have turned white by this point and probably covered with white fuzzy stuff that's gross.
~ Side note...A lot of breeders use a meth blue med to keep that fuzz away. I can't find it here at any lfs, I know I can buy it onlinne, just haven't yet. But haven't had any problems doing things this way.
I turn off the bubbles so that I have a clear view of below the water. Then using the med dropper I suck up the babies one or a few at a time and squirt them out into the java moss. They'll stick there with whatever that stuff is that on them. Try not to get any of the white stuff or white eggs. You may get some, this is because the stubborn little fish won't let go, that's fine, jsut get as little as possible. Keep at this really gently until the whole egg area is clear of wigglers. Now your java moss should be looking like there's sand all through it, PERFECT!:) Then you can take out whatever the eggs were laid on, rinse and return to M&D. (mom and dad).
Generally at this point, I do a bit of a water change as well. I use an airline tube and suction the bottom as even in a perfectly clean tank, there always seems to be "stuff" on the bottom and this'll clean up the water. Just make sure that you suction the water into a pitcher or clean bucket where you can see the bottom. If you happen to suction up a baby, no worries, use the med dropper and squirt it back in the moss.

Now maybe you're freaking out about the med dropper bit, no worries...after watching my one pair and how they suck those babies into thei mouths and spit them back out, the med dropper is no different. Just be gentle and you're good to go!

I keep the moss in there even after the babies are free swimming (in another 4-5 days) as they will graze off the plants in between feedings...least mine do:)

I keep them in this 5g for about 2 weeks after free swimming doing a water change every day or so with the airline tubing suctioning the bottom into the pitcher (great for watering your plants!) Then they need to go in a larger tank!

Alrighty then! Really this tank isn't much different than the egg hatching tanks. I keep a sponge filter in these, but add a rear filter. I know a lot of people don't use the carbon filters anymore, I'm still learning about that and do myself. But I change out the carbon about once a week or so. I attach a sponge filter to the bottom of the rear filter as well so not to suck up any babies. and I only turn this on about an hour after their feedings. During feedings I turn it off so that they can get the most food without that being sucked up and wasted. Java moss and heaters all the same. Just a larger tank!:) In my really big ones (for me that's a 55g right now) that I put the fry in once they are pea sized, the only other thing I add is a clay pot with aquatic plants in them. I keep all my tanks bare bottomed to keep the cleaning down and easier. So the pots are my way of still having plants and a graveled spot for the good bacteria, without my having to gravel vac each time I cleam! (yay!)

I hope this is helpful!

Alright, I've found a few different things that work and what I've found that doesn't.

With my first batch of fry in the above I raised the baby brine shrimp (here on called bbs) and fed them only that. This is great and really the best food that they can get from everything that I've read, heard and saw. Problem with me and my set up is now I have so many babies all over the house, but because there's no official fish room (a big huge yet) I don't have room to build a multi bbs hatchery. I know there are great plans out there and I plan to use these in the future. However, now it's just too much to raise and keep the bbs going (plus I'm slightly on the procrastinator side and have 3 little boys) So I started to experiment.

First thing I tried was microworms (more on these in another section) They worked great, but I wasn't rinsing them well enough and the culture got it the fry tank and killed everyone.

Then I tried the jarred bbs that you can get a local fish stores (lfs). This is a tiny jar full of a soupy mix of bbs. (dead of course, but just hatched and still has the good stuff in them for feeding to fry) Problem is, I found out too late, first the stuff isn't cheap ($16.00 at my lfs) and you have to keep it cold and use it in 7 days. Now if you've got a room full of fry, 7 days'll go fast, I'm not there yet and wasted a lot of it.

There's also fry starter foods that I've just gotten into and so far, this is my favorite.

Then as a last thing to try, I got off Ebay a few tubes of decapsilated bbs. These are bbs that haven't hatched yet, are on the verge of hatching and the person does something to them (I'm not sure about how to yet) that it dissolves the egg shell and leaves the bbs. It kills them of course, but if they are dried right away, they are still good to feed. The good thing about these compared to hatching your own bbs is if you get too many unhatched eggs or egg shells in your fry tank, the fry can eat those and it can kill them.

So! below I'll tell you now what I do for feeding that has been working greatly for me and my fish.

Morning - use a shot glass (my preference, can be anything) small amount of water and a pinch of the decaps bbs. leave it sit a bit so the bbs get re-hydrated and then use a dropper and feed (fish go nuts)

Mid morning/afternoon - Microworms, rinsed the right way (as stated in a different posting, or will be soon) Again, fish love them!

Afternoon/early evening - Fry starter with a bit of spirolina powder mixed in (also will tell where you can get this below)

about 30-1 hour before I go to bed - any of the above.

Works great!!!

Alright, here's a few things that I've found out not to do. Mostly and sadly these are mistakes that I made, but I wanted to pass them on so hopefully you all won't do the same:(

First thing I just recently learned, plan waaayyy a head! If you are starting with just one pair and will only have one spawn going at a time, no big deal. But I've gotten in slightly over my head here. I've currently (this is June 13, 08) got 3 pair and another forming. I've got a 55 with quarter sized and dime sized (Sunsets and Turqs all bought online), a 29 with pea sized (marble x silver and white koi x gold, spawned at same time, added together), a 10 with newly free swimming fry (there's got to be over 300 in this tank!) okay, yes to a large scale breeder this isn't much, but when these tanks are taking up more room than my 3 boys' stuff, then it's crazy. Well the thing I did wrong is left the pea sized that are now in the 29, in the 10 too long. probably 60% of what I've got in there are missing or have curly ventricals (the 2 long fins on the bottom) this is because they were over crowded in the 10 that I hatched them in. I'm hoping that at least the ones that haven't grown in yet still will after being moved into the larger tank, but I'm doubtful and yes I know I should cull them, but I have no large fish to feed them too and don't have the heart to do ther other means. So they will become my "nemo" fish and found non-breeding homes with *sigh* So, what not to do? DON'T over crowd, DON'T leave in a 10g too long! I'd say once they are even close to showing their "angel" fins, move them to a larger tank.

This is just the first, I'm sure I'll have more as I continue to learn and journey down this path! :(