The Planted Tank Forum banner

Uni's 30g/20g Nursery

49K views 218 replies 70 participants last post by  Speshall*K 
#1 · (Edited)
I've set aside the time, did my research, and spent some money. My rams and angels have been laying eggs for months, but I've only made lame efforts to raise the fry/eggs to maturity. I've had enough :icon_bigg ! Time to start a nursery (and a new thread ;)).

2 - 10 gal tanks
2 - AC mini's (with ceramic, sponge, and substrat)
2 - 50 watt via aqua heaters
2 - Lee's specimen containters (no flow holes)
2 - Hagen breeding pens (flow-through holes)

KH - 3 deg
GH - 3 deg
 

Attachments

See less See more
1
#54 ·
it is an odd-photography trick: the fish all look huge until you see them next to something else to give perspective. its as if you know how big they should be...but you can't quite work it out...
 
#56 ·
I really like WP's comment on them looking like killer whales. The high backs and upright dorsals does remind me of orcas. Same thing applies in the latest picture. That's one robust looking neon in the foreground, even making those threadfin rainbows look like dwarfs. :)
 
#57 ·
Kris said:
it is an odd-photography trick: the fish all look huge until you see them next to something else to give perspective. its as if you know how big they should be...but you can't quite work it out...
It's the angels that are throwing me. I look at them and all I can see are full grown angels and humongous cardinal tetras!
 
#59 ·
An end and a beginning...

Well,

They're all gone. All but a few of the best, that is ;). Here are a couple of the keepers. The top one represents what about 1/2 of them look like, the other half were much darker (80% black).

....and then there was this bottom guy :proud:






A disease outbreak hit the tank housing the parents. I lost every fish, except the good old female (strange, how some fish are simply "bullet-proof"). She has been quarantined in one of the 10 gals for the past few weeks. Her mate almost pulled through, and was showing signs of improvement. Then, one day, he ate before I went to work, and was gone by the time I got home :(.

She's back to her old self now, but without a mate. But he's on the way (shown below). I grabbed him off aquabid before it crashed. Owner says he's a proven male who has raised his own. According to the genetic charts, these two will produce 25% silver, 50% ghost (what they are), and 25% gold. That will be fun.



 
#62 ·
Many Changes

Following the death of my old male, I went to aquabid, looking for a replacement. This guy was overnighted about 1000 miles, and did not look very good when he arrived. He was disoriented, sluggish, had some fin rot, and his swimming was labored, to say the least.



But 24 hours later, he had pulled through. Another 24 hours and the fungus was gone from his fins. I knew he looked tough; that's why I had to have him.



Meanwhile, in the adjacent 10 gal, the female was up to her old routine :icon_roll .



I decided that a 10 gal was not going to be a large enough breeder tank for these two (as they are quite large, even for angels), so I went and grabbed a 20g long to fit beneath the 30g grow-out tank.



After a week, I introduced them to this tank and they immediately started fighting :mad: . They really were going at it. Locking lips and shoving each other around; taking shots at one another continuously. I don't have any photos of this battle because I was too preoccupied making sure that one of them didn't gain the upper hand. They were both so vicious, yet evenly matched, that if one of them would have got the other running, it would have all been over quickly.

So, you can imagine how elated I was when after 3 hours of sparring, they started to fight less....and then even tolerate one another.....and then start cleaning the spawning slate together :eek: :bounce: !!!



The female's "schedule" will have her laying eggs this weekend. I'm going to let them raise the eggs themselves. Both parents are proven to raise fry, so I'm optismistic. But, more importantly, I want them to bond.

In other news, my LFS tore down their display tank and gave me a [smaller] breeding pair of gold angels. They are no where near as big as the other pair, so they may get by in a 10 gal for now. But this is by no means and ideal setup, so I may be looking to aquabid to find them another home soon. First I need to make sure that the silver angels successfully spawn ;).



Oh yeah, and the rams are making babies again, now that all the angel fry are out of their tank. No where to raise em right now though.



Update to come this weekend if any spawning takes place....
 
#65 ·
Uni-
All of us angel keepers are green with envy- your success makes me want to keep trying! I've got a pair who've spawned 4 times, but I haven't had luck with the wigglers yet. I'm more prepared now, so maybe next time around...
Please keep up posting the "Angels' story"!
 
#68 ·
when it rains....

Raul, The O2 goes to the tank. The up-rushing bubbles create a vaccuum in the sponge, which pulls water through it (and out the top of the bubble tube).

So, they both lay eggs withing a day of each other. As I said before, I'm letting both pair raise em. The only problem is that the N-cyle is not yet fully established in these tanks. Although no ammonia is present, the tanks accumulate about .25ppm of Nitrite ever couple days. I could, of course, take care of this using water changes, but I fear this may be hard on the eggs. Can anyone recommend a product that will jump start the NO2 - NO3 conversion?

May lose these batches....



:icon_frow
 
#73 ·
wow... that is awesome. I just saw one of my angels for the first time in 3 days, it looks like they're getting better!!!!

i hope they wont end up like your old male though... :icon_frow

wish me luck with keeping them alive, or at least happy...
 
#74 · (Edited)
freeswimming

Nervously, went out of town for the weekend. Decided NOT to have anyone come and feed the parentals since I was concerned about water conditions (eg overfeeding).

I was pleased to see freeswimming fry. Looks like the silvers have about 100 and the golds around 200 (surprising, since the silver female dwarfs the gold female). Man am I gonna have my hands full. I've never culled either of my earlier hatches - may have to on this one.

Gold female and 9 day fry:


Silver pair (female left - male right) and 8 day old fry.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top