Angelfish Babies!

This has been an exciting week for me because for the first time in two years, I have a breeding pair of angelfish.

If you've been following my posts for awhile, you may remember that Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick had so many successful clutches that I lost count. But after Stevie passed away, Lindsay was uninterested in anyone else. Angelfish usually mate for life.

I have a black angel and a silver angel in a community tank that includes a marble angel, a pleco, about two dozen tetras and about a dozen corydoras. When they decided to lay eggs on an intake, I didn't give it much thought because with so many others in the tank, there would be little chance that they would survive.

However, John and Christie McFish (of Fleetfish Mac fame) have surprised me. Their eggs hatched within a few days and I now have several dozen babies ready to swim.

Once the eggs hatch, the mother or father catch the babies in their mouths and spit them out someplace where they can get plenty of food. In this case, it's on the intake itself where algae has formed. The angelfish stay glued to this by their little heads. In this stage, they are called wigglers.

As they grow, they become strong enough to eventually pop off and swim on their own. This is a dangerous time because they could get sucked into the intake itself, or they could be eaten by another fish. They are barely the size of a hat pin, and they are translucent. They are also shaped like bullets and not the shape we identify with angelfish.

During this phase, the parents will need to keep them corralled. Normally, I would have had them in a tank by themselves with a piece of foam over the intake to prevent anyone from being sucked into it, and there would be no predators in the tank. However, because they are in a community tank, I inserted a small screen between them and the others; it only reaches partway but it prevents a direct line-of-sight. I also removed the third angelfish to another community tank. The pleco was found dead the morning after they laid their eggs; I suspect during the night, the pleco attempted to eat the eggs and the parents viciously defended them.

The tetras and corys are remaining at the far end of the tank and both angelfish check frequently to make sure they stay on their side!

The next phase is called the Invisible Phase. Many of the babies will seem to disappear; they are actually living on the bottom of the tank, in the gravel, where predators are less likely to discover them. I do have an infant tank at the ready, filled with water from the original tank, and I will attempt to capture at least a few. Then I'll see what the survival rate is between those that are in the dedicated infant tank versus those that are kept with the parents.

And what do babies eat when they are barely the size of a hatpin? I will feed them First Bites, which is manufactured specifically for baby fish, and finely crumbled brine shrimp. As they grow over the course of the next eight weeks, they will eventually be weaned onto finely crumbled fish flakes, and then onto regular fish flakes.

Between the age of eight and twelve weeks (depending on their size) they will go to the local pet shop for sale. Although some breeders will sell the babies when they are the size of a dime, I wait until mine are the size of a quarter. By then, their coloring has taken effect and they have the beautiful lines of the angelfish.

To read more about my angelfish breeding, check out other blog posts at www.vickisangelfish.blogspot.com.

p.m.terrell is the author of more than 18 books in several genres. Her award-winning Black Swamp Mysteries features CIA operatives who use fronts as angelfish breeders to conceal their real identities. Visit www.pmterrell.com for more information and to read sample chapters.

Getting Acclimated

The new Stevie Fishnick is getting acclimated to her new surroundings. She spent just one hour in the bag getting adjusted to the temperature, and then I released her into the tank with Lindsay. I am hoping they will breed, which might take several weeks as they become accustomed to one another.

Soon after the video below was taken, Lindsay pecked a bit at Stevie so I placed a divider between them. The divider allows them to see one another but not to invade each other's space. I will try removing the divider after a few days to see if he accepts her.

Lindsay Gets a Mate

I haven't written much about Lindsay Buckingfish lately. His mate, Stevie Fishnick, died a few weeks ago. I tried moving Lindsay back into the community tank where he first lived but the male angelfish were extremely territorial and I was concerned for Lindsay's safety.

So Lindsay has been in the breeding tank all by his lonesome.

Last week, I learned from my friendly neighborhood pet shop, Carroll's Pets, that they had received a nice, large shipment of angelfish. The co-owner, Shelli, and I spent some time selecting what we think is a female.

We looked for:

(1) A head that slopes, versus one that rises sharply. Male angelfish get a bump on the top of their heads as they age; females do not.

(2) An angelfish remaining toward the back of the tank. Males tend to be more assertive and come to the front while females are content in the background.

(3) An angelfish that is not assertive when feeding. Females tend to allow the males to assertively rush to the top to eat.

(4) An angelfish without the barbs in the ventrals. Males have a barb that becomes more pronounced as they age; females do not.

The only surefire way to identify a female is when they mate, so we won't know for certain that I have a female for Lindsay until that time.

Here is Stevie Fishnick in the bag as it gets acclimated to the temperature. She is a red-eyed spangle. Lindsay's prior mates were both platinum angels, which looked identical to the new one except for the red eyes.

Redecorating a Community Tank

I liked the castles in Lindsay's and Stevie's Honeymoon Suite so much that I bought one for one of my community tanks.

Above, you can see two rare blue angels, a platinum marble angel named Emmie Lou who is the daughter of Lindsay and Stevie, and a blue marble angelfish. Emmie Lou (at the far left) is the only female. This tank is 55 gallons, and also contains corydoras and tetras.

Below is a video of their new digs:

Update on the Honeymoon Suite

Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick seem to be enjoying the new decor in their honeymoon suite.

I have noticed them side by side staring at parts of the tank - the castles, the plant leaves, and even the glass. This is common when they are considering laying eggs. I would love to know how they communicate; I can imagine them asking each other if they think the conditions are right in that particular spot for the eggs to flourish.

Here is Lindsay; he is about ten inches tall and about two years old now. He's fathered several hundred eggs!

This is a small tank; only 20 gallons. Though books recommend five gallons for each angelfish, I allow ten gallons for each one. Only Lindsay and Stevie live in this one, so there are no predators and their eggs and fry would be safe.

Redecorating the Honeymoon Suite

It's been quite some time since Lindsay and Stevie mated. I tried twice to return them to the community tank. Stevie was accepted instantly, as female angels are, but Lindsay was bullied and might have been pecked to death had I not intervened.

So I decided that even if they do not breed again, the two needed to remain in the Honeymoon Suite. I didn't want to have Lindsay there all by himself, so Stevie and Lindsay are together again and have all the privacy they need.

However, when they were breeding, it was important to keep the tank spartan. This helps me to clean the tank without disturbing the baby angelfish. Now that they're no longer breeding, I decided to redecorate.

I am writing two books that center around an Irish castle. The first of these two will be released in 2015, and the second either in 2015 or 2016. Irish castles tend not to have spirals on their towers, but I fell in love with these two castles. It has created a fairytale atmosphere for the two lovers. They seem to be enjoying their new surroundings.

Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick

I haven't posted a lot lately about new baby angelfish because there hasn't been any in quite awhile. The couple I depend on most for laying eggs every few weeks has been on a hiatus for months. The last time they laid eggs, Lindsay thought the fry wasn't to his liking and decided to eat them. Or maybe they were too much to his liking. Stevie caught him in the act and tore into him. I removed them both to a separate tank and hand-raised their young on my own, eventually raising 17 to take to the local pet shop.

I don't know if Stevie was still angry with Lindsay and refused to have sex with him. Or maybe she was too traumatized by the sight of Her Babies' Daddy eating them. I tried changing their food to pure brine shrimp, specially designed for breeding. No luck.

This past weekend, I decided that it was too much work to clean so many tanks every week so I drained the infant tank. I moved Lindsay and Stevie to a community tank but that turned out to be short-lived. Stevie was accepted instantly, as most females are. Lindsay, however, was perceived as a threat by the other males and promptly driven into a corner. As I observed this, I realized Lindsay's eye had become injured so out he came and back to his original tank.

I added medicine to his tank that day and followed with Bionox the following day. Late yesterday, I moved Stevie, shown in this video below, back to the honeymoon suite. I decided since angelfish mate for life, they were better off together. Lindsay looked lonely in the tank by himself. And Stevie wouldn't leave the corner of the community tank, where she stared across the room at Lindsay.

This morning, Lindsay's eye is almost completely healed. I will continue with the medicine for a week, and then reassess his condition.

So the lovers are back together.

Vicki's Angelfish at 5-6 Weeks

Here's a video of the latest batch of angelfish when they were between five and six weeks old. Some breeders will sell them when they are this size - their bodies are smaller than a quarter. In my opinion, they are too small to sell when they are this young, and they haven't had a chance to become strong and more robust.



 

I keep the angelfish until they are between 8 and 10 weeks old. By that time, their fins are tall and carried erect; they are stronger and more resistant to moving to new water and new tanks; and they've had a chance to get to know humans as beings who bring them food. :)

 

This batch of angels is from Lindsay Buckingfish, a 10-inch-tall black marble and his petite lover Stevie Fishnick, an 8-inch platinum. The result is 7 black marble angels and 10 white marble.



Babies or Sushi?

Last week I posted that after a break, Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick had laid more eggs. A couple of days later, I noticed they were almost gone. Then a day after that, the amazon leaf was completely clean.

What happened to the eggs?

Sometimes the parents will eat their own eggs. This usually occurs because something doesn't feel quite right to them. Maybe there has been an abrupt change in water temperature. Or the conditions of the water don't feel conducive to eggs hatching. Or maybe they realized the eggs weren't fertilized or they were out of shape.

There is nothing to be alarmed about when this happens. If the couple is serious, they'll try again within a few days or another week or two.

One of my friends has an angelfish pair that lay eggs frequently but they are always eaten. Then she noticed the male angel getting very upset with the female. I've seen this happen before when one parent thinks they were opening a sushi bar and the other one wants to raise their young. The conversation usually goes something like this:

"My clock is ticking. I need children!"

"But I enjoy my freedom. I don't want to get bogged down with three hundred fry to feed."

"We're not going to be young forever. Angelfish grow up fast and the time flies by. If we're ever going to have children, we need to do it now."

"But we tried last week and nothing happened."

"That's because you ate them!"

"They didn't look like fish. They looked like eggs. And after all that sex, I was hungry."

Back from a Break

Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick took a break over the holidays and didn't lay more eggs until the night of January 4. They were busy laying eggs on an amazon leaf when I checked on them this past weekend. I'll keep an eye on things and post the progress of the eggs and fry when they hatch.

If I were a serious professional breeder, I could have encouraged them to lay eggs more frequently by performing frequent water changes, perhaps every day or every other day. Or I could add amazon extract or extra vitamins to their water to get the hormones going. Instead, I allowed them to have their break, and I continued my 25% - 33% water changes once a week. I did skip their amazon extract for a couple of weeks to give them a further break, and added it back in during the last water change. Amazon extract is a real boost to angelfish as well as other tropical freshwater fish because it includes vitamins and minerals that we lack in our sanitized city water. Without those vitamins and minerals, angelfish often do not live as long, unless the natural water supply carries them.

Reunited

This past weekend, Popeye the Sailor Man, the blue angelfish so named because he'd developed popeye, was returned to the community tank.

He had been in the infirmary tank for about a month, and his eye had healed nicely, thanks to Binox and Maracyn Plus, two antibiotics that worked together to prevent secondary infections and helped to reduce the swelling in the eye. He remained isolated for another week, just to make certain that he was back to normal, before I moved him back to the home he'd lived in since he was about 8 weeks old.

He joined his mate, as shown below.



Angelfish can live to be ten years old. They mate for life.

There is another pair in the same community tank, that I called the Bickerstaffs because, though they are mates, they seem to constantly bicker!

Large Pleco

I don't normally see the largest pleco in my community tank because he generally comes out at night and is tucked inside a tree trunk during the day.

But this morning I found Mick Jaggerfish hanging on the side glass, so I snapped these photographs.

In this one above, you can see his reflection in the glass. He is approximately 15 inches long.

And in the second photograph, it was taken from outside the tank looking in. He gets along very well with all the other fish, and helps to keep the algae from forming on the glass.





An Update on Emmie Lou

You might recall the white marble angelfish that was born to Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick a few months ago. She was the only survivor in that particular clutch of fish, though both before and after, that couple had several clutches with many survivors who have since grown to adulthood.

Because I spent so much time and effort trying to keep the sole angelfish baby alive, I decided to keep her and I named her Emmie Lou. She was introduced to a community tank where I have a good proportion of females to males. I was hoping that she was a female (difficult to determine until she was older) because another male in the tank could be problematic with possible territorial issues.

I'm very happy to say that Emmie Lou is doing great and yes, she is a female. She is younger than any of the other angelfish in the tank, so her size is much smaller in comparison. But here she is with a male blue marble and a male koi angel.

It's feeding time and you can see the food floating on the water's surface.



Simone - The Tri-Colored Collie

Simone went to the beauty shop last week and had her "hair done". Collies require brushing at least once a day. She loves to be groomed, and will stand perfectly still for as long as it takes to brush her.

Simone is a tri-colored collie. Other collie colors include sable (like Lassie), white, and blue merle.

Male collies tend to have much larger manes, which is one reason all the collies that portrayed Lassie were male.

The thick undercoat at their necks was used during their jobs protecting livestock. If a wolf lunged at the dog's throat, they were likely to get a full mouth of hair and no contact with the skin at all. Likewise, they have a thick undercoating at the backs of their hind legs for the same reason.

Twice, one of my Jack Russells got out of the back yard and began roaming the neighborhood. Both times, Simone came to me immediately, pawed at me and ran back and forth to the door fretting, until I followed her. She led me to a window each time where I could see Eddie or Lucy running in the street. I opened a nearby door, called to them, and thankfully they came running straight back (with the bribe of a cookie). I then patched the hole under the fence where they'd made their escape.

Butterfly Pleco

Here is a rare picture of my butterfly pleco, which lives in a community tank with four freshwater angelfish, some tetra and corydoras.

I've had this pleco since he was about an inch long. He is now at his maximum length, around 6 inches. The butterfly pleco can grow to 5 to 7 inches in length. They're very shy creatures and will often hide during the day and only come out at night when the other fish are sleeping and the tank is dark. Normally having the light on in the tank is enough to send him under a rock or in a cave. He may be under the impression that I can't see him, since this picture found him at the back of the tank behind some grass and rocks.

The butterfly pleco, like most plecos, are very peaceful fish. Though some can grow quite long - I have a pleco in another tank that is around 15 inches long - they do not bother other fish. They eat algae off the sides of the tank and decorations and tend to be bottom feeders. I add a Pleco Block to the tank each week, which provides plankton and wood, necessary for their digestion.

I do not have plecos in my breeding tanks, however, only in the community tanks. They will eat the eggs and newborn fry of other fish.

Appearance of Antibiotic in the Water

I mentioned in yesterday's post that adding Binox to the aquarium water can turn it a yellowish-green. I actually like this because it tells me which tank still has the antibiotic present, and whether it is diminishing.

In the picture at right, you'll see two 20-gallon tanks. The one on the bottom is the honeymoon suite for Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick. Their water is perfectly clear.

The tank on the top is where the sick blue angelfish, whom I've named Popeye the Sailor Man, is recuperating. You can see the significant change in the water color.

Now that Popeye the Sailor Man is so much better, I will continue replacing about 1/3 of the water each week, but I won't be adding any more antibiotic unless his eye begins to protrude again. When the water is perfectly clear - which should happen within 2-3 weeks - he will most definitely be ready to join the other fish in his old community tank, shown at right. This picture was taken before he became ill, and he is swimming with his mate.

It will be interesting to see the two reunite. Angelfish mate for life. I believe these are two brothers and they were from the same clutch, so they're not technically a "couple" but they have hung out together, side by side, since they were the size of a dime.

Medicine for Popeye

When this blue angelfish acquired popeye, I knew I had to act quickly.

Popeye occurs when one eye (and sometimes both) begin to swell significantly. It can be due to an injury or to poor water conditions. Since I change 25-33% of the water weekly and monitor the water quality, I knew it was more likely that this fish was injured.

The first thing I did was remove him from the community tank and place him in a 20 gallon tank by himself.

I added Binox to the water, which can turn the water a yellowish-green color. This is an antibiotic.

I also began feeding an antibiotic food. But his appetite was poor and I was concerned that he was not getting sufficient treatment.

I took a trip down to my friendly neighborhood pet shop, Carroll's Pets in Lumberton, North Carolina, where Shelli recommended that I add Maracyn Plus to the regimen.

Since I'd just added Binox the day before, I waited a full day before adding the Maracyn Plus.

I added three teaspoons the first day and one every other day for the first week.

Then I performed a 33% water change, added the Binox again (a half dose) and continued with the Maracyn Plus every other day.

The results have been terrific. This blue angel has almost completely healed and the addition of the medicine in the water also prevented any secondary infections. Secondary infections are common with ailing fish, because their immune system is down. It is often the secondary infection and not the popeye that kills the fish.

I will change the water again this weekend and make a decision whether to keep this fish in the tank for one more week or transport him back to the community tank, where three other angelfish are waiting. Because the others are males as well, I want him to be in peak condition when he returns. The other angels were from the same clutch as this one.

Angelfish can live to be 10 years old if given the right treatment and correct water parameters. This ailing angelfish is less than 2 years old.

Recovering from Popeye

I haven't posted here in a couple of weeks. I've had a sinus infection that has laid me low and I've also had my hands full caring for the blue angelfish that has popeye.

Around the middle of November, I placed this blue angelfish in a 20 gallon tank by himself. It's easier and less costly to treat a small tank than a larger one, and I don't run the risk of healthy fish building up an immunity to antibiotics by focusing only on treatment of the ill fish.

In the photograph on the right, you can clearly see how much larger one eye is than the other. Popeye can occur due to an injury or to bad water conditions. Since I change 25%-33% of the water each week and monitor the quality, I deduced that this fish most likely injured himself in the community tank.

I am happy to report, however, that he is doing much better now. Within the week, he will be ready to return to the community tank.

Here he is below in a recent video. You can see the swelling in his eye has been reduced significantly and he acts like he's feeling much better - especially evidenced by his increasing appetite.

Find out tomorrow what I did to bring him back to peak health.

Clutch Number 10

Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick have laid a 10th clutch of eggs. You might recall that they laid a clutch just a couple of weeks ago. However, none of those eggs survived. Sometimes I think the parents look at their offspring like a batch of cookies.

"Oh, we can do better than that," the mother says.

"I agree," says the papa. "Let's eat these and start over."

They have used the same amazon leaf for this latest batch. You can spot them easily because they are stark white.

Stevie Fishnick is a platinum angel with a gold crown.

If this clutch is like their others, about half of the fish will be black marbles like their papa, and half will be gold marbles - a golden or white background with black marbling.

Emmie Lou

Emmie Lou is between three and four months old now, and doing great. Like a typical female angelfish, she is small for her age. She spends more time alone, and now that she's discovered that food is plentiful, she no longer eats like it's her last meal.

Because she is a female, she has been more readily accepted into the community tank.

Had she been a male, she would have faced territorial issues from the other two males in the tank, who are constantly vying for a particular female's attention.

You might recall that Emmie Lou was born at my house (the 8th clutch of Lindsay Buckingfish and Stevie Fishnick), below. She is considered a blond marble - a cross between a black marble and a platinum angel. Crosses between black marbles and golden angels are also considered blond marbles.