Desperation

The last few days have been tough. For some strange reason, the newest batch of baby angelfish have not grown nearly as large and robust as previous batches. I've contributed it to the parents, who remained with them much longer than any previous time, because the Infant Tank was being used by an aggressive koi angelfish couple, Robert Redfish and Susan Saranfish.

The parents have remained extremely possessive of the babies, so that long after they should have been rising to the surface and eating food and coming to the front of the tank to greet me, they were still hiding in the back behind the plants.

Then one by one, I've found a dead baby each morning.

I am down to four angelfish, and one of those I thought was dead but found he was still breathing. So I did something drastic. I moved them to the betta tank.

Before you gasp and have images of the betta having the babies for breakfast, I should mention that the golden betta has been ill for the last couple of weeks. I've seen bettas go through this stage before as they reach the end of their natural life. It has no virus and no bacterial infection; it's just old and spends 99% of his time on the bottom of the tank next to his favorite castle.

So I decided I would move the angelfish into the 2.5 gallon betta tank, observe them, and if the betta appears the least bit curious, out he would come and into a nice betta bowl.

But he hasn't paid them any attention at all.

They are gathered next to the heater in the tank. The temperature gauge is about six inches, so you can see how tiny they are next to it. Two white patterned and one black marble appear robust. A fourth black marble is the one that I thought was dead but was still breathing - I don't know if he will make it.

I'll play things by ear, keeping a very close watch on the babies. In the future, I will separate the parents from the babies when they are much younger. I believe it helps the babies grow stronger when they are not overprotected.