Fish: Re: [tropical fish club] More babies...

Erika,
I have been breeding fish for the past 20 yrs. Between my husband and myself, there is very little on the retail market that we have not either kept and raised or spawned (or both).
Platys, mollies, swordtails, guppies... all fish I have spawned in excess over the years to help supply the local pet stores with healthy fish. I have bred for color, fin style, size, and even to control sex of the fry. (yes, this can be done via temp regulation)

The first fish I ever spawned were swordtails, and like you, I was so excited when I found my first few fry. I quickly went from a single 10 gallon tank to 20 tanks, and then moved on to spawning mollies to add to my mix. My last spawning of mollies, platys, and swordtails was only a couple of yrs ago. I stopped because the market for them locally went down when the economy bottomed out. I ended up stuck with a 90 gallon overcrowded with 300 fry and the pet store suddenly telling me they didn't have space for them. I was forced to separate my pairs and be content to keep them as "pets" instead of breeders, to avoid their rapid spawning rates, and to outsource the fry to other pet stores and via internet auctions.

I find that after a few yrs I grow bored with spawning the same species all the time, so I try to limit myself and am always searching for something new. Angels were something I never had the space to spawn in the past. Now that I have it and ended up with mated pairs purely by accident, I decided to let them do their thing. I raised my parent fish from dime size, they are now 2 yrs old and approaching full grown. The angels have spawned every 3 wks like clockwork for about a yr now, so this will be the first time they got it right. I didn't do anything special, they are in a community tank with a red tail shark, gold and cherry barbs, a rubber pleco, and the last of my very old red & blue columbian tetras. (There is much to be said about not over stocking a tank in these situations, my tanks are never over stocked.) My nitrate levels never go above 10 in any of my tanks. pH is checked regularly and always stable unless I purposely alter
it to induce spawning in some species.

The only thing I can offer to anyone struggling with spawning their fish is to maintain the tank as if it were a breeding tank... keep it clean, keep it stable, and keep it extremely well decorated... but also, watch the fish. The fish often tell us themselves what they need, we just have to learn to understand their language. My angels had issues with other fish invading their spawning spots, using decor to sneak in and ambush the eggs or fry. This time around my parent fish redecorated the tank on their own, all I had to do was leave it alone. They uprooted all of the live plants and moved all of the silk plants to the center of the tank in a pile, creating a border for the other fish. Because their end of the tank is bare now, its impossible for the other fish to get into this territory without an aggressive attack by the parent fish. So, sometimes the best thing to do is to let the fish figure it out their way and just not to interfere.

Your 5 fry will quickly multiply, which is the other "trick" to successful spawning and raising of any fish. Being prepared for what they will give you in way of fry, and having the space for them is always important. Livebearer fry are mature enough to spawn by the age of about 12 - 16 wks. (Sometimes even sooner) Tracking the count of males vs females and knowing when to separate them will help to keep things manageable, stable, and healthy.

Congrats on your fry, and with the angels... keep trying. Watch the fish closely if/when they begin spawning. That is the only way to determine what is going wrong. Angels are not as easy as livebearers, and they need time to learn to be good parents. Some take longer than others. Ray is a good person to consult if you are attempting to spawn angels. And... the other requirement is... patience.

Have a great day.
Dawn

Dawn Moneyhan
Aquatics Specialist/Nutritionist
To learn more about me go to
http://www.helium.com/users/449334

--- On Wed, 3/16/11, erika roy <effervescentbirdsong@yahoo.ca> wrote:

From: erika roy <effervescentbirdsong@yahoo.ca>
Subject: Re: [tropical fish club] More babies...
To: tropicalfishclub@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 1:56 PM

Wow, and I thought my five Platy fry was something. Every time I had Angel fish

they died. My tank isn't fit enough for them. You are a master of fish keeping

or rather water keeping.

My five babies are getting big. The Triplets look like Platy's now and are

coming up to the top to eat with the much bigger mom and dad.

The Twins are the names I have given the other two fry. I consider them to be

fraternal twins because, they are different sizes.

Mom is a large Ocean Dusk Platy and dad is a regular Dark Orange Platy. The

babies colour scheme is from bright orange to pale peach. They are still growing

so I will know what they look like,as the get bigger. I also am not sure whether

they are boys or girls.

Erika

:)

________________________________

From: milwaukee_mermaid <dawnshungryeyes4u2c@yahoo.com>

To: tropicalfishclub@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Mon, March 14, 2011 4:20:00 AM

Subject: [tropical fish club] More babies...

I just thought I'd take a minute to share the good news (I think its good news,

lol). My geophagus iporangensis pair spawned again, the eggs hatched about an

hour ago (another 400 - 500 of them)... and last week one of my pairs of angels

spawned (yet again) and now I have approx. 200 angel fry in the 90 gallon

community tank. The first of the angel fry is starting to try swimming tonight,

they're adorable to watch. I have a fry tank ready to pull some of them out

once they are free swimming, so fingers are crossed. After a yr of watching

them spawn every 3 wks like clock work, it sure would be nice if this pair got

it right this time.

The red tail shark and barbs that share the 90 gallon with the spawning angels

are going nuts wanting to eat the fry, but the parents are doing a great job of

keeping them all away. It was interesting where the angel parents moved the fry

to this time around, and even more interesting to see how they redecorated most

of the 90 gallon tank before spawning. In all my yrs of keeping angels this was

the first time I've ever seen them literally grab a hold of and drag the big

silk plants to where they wanted and then dropped them there. Over the course

of 2 wks they managed to remove all decor except a few rocks on the bottom from

the 1/3 of the tank they decided is theirs. All of the decor was moved to the

dividing point and no fish are allowed beyond the edge of those plants without a

fierce attack by both parents. The parents seem to have mastered teamwork. :-)

I want to say thanks to Ray for all of the info we exchanged about my angels

over the past months. I think I have the premature hatching problem under

control now. The other pair ate their eggs again last night, so they're still

trying... but I am seeing mostly fertilized eggs now from them too, and no more

premature hatching. I'm still not sure what resolved the problem, I didn't do

anything different and am not noticing anything changed in water params or temp,

but whatever it is I am hopeful we are going in the right direction this time.

I'm still not sure where I'm going to put all these new babies... the tanks are

full now and its still too cold to ship anything yet, but I'm enjoying the extra

"work" in taking care of them all. The 510 in the 120 gallon tank are all hand

feeding and are so much fun even my dog is fascinated at how they all race to

the front corner of the tank when she approaches, expecting food and getting a

nose on the glass instead. I think I need a bigger house! ;-)

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