| Raising Angelfish |
| Home ] Hatchery [Gallery P1 [ Gallery P2 [ Water Quality [ Equipment [ Breeding [ Hatching Eggs [ Raising Fry [ Foods [ Brine Shrimp [Trouble Shooting [FAQ [Special Projects [ Sources&Links] |
| Raising healthy well formed angels that are free from defects should be the goal of every angelfish breeder. This can be achieved by providing a clean and healthy enviorment. It is important to remove any dirt, uneaten food and slime that accumulates on the glass bottom and sides. In addition frequent water changes are necessary. Once fry are free swimming they are usually placed in a fry rearing tank. These tanks are usually 5 to 10-gal. A bare bottom tank is a requirement to save the fry from getting trapped in the gravel. A cycled sponge filter is required for biological filtration as well as a good quality heater to maintain 82'. The first 2 weeks are the most crucial in raising fry. Mistakes that are made in this time period often don't show up till later when it is too late. After the free swimmers are placed in their new home they need to be fed. The preferred first food is freshly hatched brine shrimp. You will need to get good at hatching and harvesting brine shrimp as this will be their main diet for many weeks. Refer to the brine shrimp section of this site for hatching and harvesting instructions. In the first couple of days it is important to feed the fry only newly hatched brine shrimp. Once the bbs hatch they start growing and may become harder for your 1rst or 2nd day fry to eat. Even the smallest of fry that I have seen will be able to feed on freshly hatched bbs. It is important to feed your fry bbs at least twice a day. The bbs can live for a couple of hours in fresh water so any excess should be syphoned out no later than that. You will notice that the fry's bellies will turn pink from the bbs which is a good sign. Over feeding fry is a common mistake many people make. If there are any bbs swimming after a half an hour you are over feeding. The recomended way of syphoning excess food and debris from your fry tank is useing rigid airline tubing. You will no doubt suck up many fry in your first few attempts so make sure you syphon into a small container where you will be able to retrieve them using a baster or eye dropper. Failing to keep your fry tanks clean along with frequent water changes will result in both immediate and future problems. The first is having an amonia or ntrite spike. Due to their small size, dead bbs decompose very quickly and add amonia to the tank. Even a fully cycled sponge filter will have a hard time keeping amonia under control if excess debris isn't removed. The immediate results are fry deaths. In addition to keeping your fry tanks clean and frequent water changes you must also wipe the slime that accumulates on the bottom and sides of the glass. This slime can harbor all kinds of bacteria. The fry spend the night resting on the bottom and can easily come down with bacterial infections. The long term effects of improper maintenance can be very devastating to those fry that survive. They include missing ventral fins, deformed fins, missing gill plates and belly sliders (when a fish scoots along the bottom of the tank and has difficulty in swimming properly). All of these need to be culled as they are not fit to be sold or bred. After about 2 weeks the fry will start to take the shape of angelfish. Depending on the size of the spawn and the size of the rearing tank they will soon have to be moved into a larger tank or divided among several tanks. Maintenance is just as important but becomes easier because the fry learn to stay away from syphons and in general become stronger as they grow. This is no time to slack off on the mainenance because all of the things mentioned above can still happen very easily. After the fry are 1 month free swimming you can start adding finely crushed flake food to their diet. Many times the fry don't accept flake food right away so you may have to do an extra cleaning or two before they start eating it. I don't worry about it too much because I feed bbs till they are nickel body size. I do this because there isn't a better food for your fish than bbs. It is natural and there isn't anything that will make the fry grow any quicker. The biggest problem facing your fry at this point is overcrowding. Stocking rates that I follow are 3 to 5 fry per gallon up to pea size. 2 per gallon pea to dime size. 1 per gallon dime to nickel size. 1 per 2gallons nickel to quarter size. 1 per 5 gallons quarter to fifty cent size. 1 per 10 gallons adult size. I am able to maintain these stocking rates with 2 water changes per week with the addition of extra filtration. The extra filtration cosists of additional sponge filters, undergravel filters and power filters. The additional filtration helps guard against amonia and nitrite spikes and the water changes help keep the nitrate levels below 20 ppm. Your stocking rates may vary depending on your water supply quality and your water changing frequency. Growth rates of fry will vary between strains. Some strains like dd blacks are slower growing. All sizes are for body size only, no fins. An example of good growth rates would be. Dime size 4-6 weeks. Nickle size 6-8 weeks. Quarter size 8-10 weeks. Fifty cent size 12-14 weeks. Dollar size (old silver dollar, not new coin) 16-18 weeks. An easy way to remember is one coin size for every month after free swimming. |
| The Fry Tank |
| The First 2 weeks |
| The Next Few Weeks and Months |
 |
| This 40-gal contains 43 dime size fry. It is filtered by 2 sponge filters rated at 55 and 20-gal capacity. |