Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Separating the Parents from the Babies

Now that the four baby angels from the first batch of Vicki's Angels have left home, I have an empty tank. It is 20 gallons because it's an infant tank or breeding tank. Below it I have the tank with Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick and their four newest babies, who are about three weeks old.

The babies should be separated from the parents in a small tank. It gives them the opportunity to grow higher fins and larger faster. I would have preferred to have separated them earlier because I wasn't sure if Lindsay or Stevie might look at them as a tasty snack some evening. Fortunately, they have proven to be great parents.

Faced with the decision of moving the babies or the parents, it's always easiest to move the parents. As angels grow and their fins become much longer, they are slower and easier to catch. The smallest babies, however, leap like fleas when you try to catch them; it helps them stay far from predators' mouths.

So I have moved Lindsay and Stevie to the infant tank recently vacated. It usually takes about 24 hours for them to get accustomed to a new tank but they realized pretty quickly this time around that it was their old honeymoon suite.

Meanwhile, without the parents in the infant tank, the four babies are venturing further out. So stay tuned for more pictures soon! In this latest batch, I have two black marbles who look very much like their Papa, one that looks like the platinum Mama, and interestingly, an orange one!