[rballi]

I have had many spawns from angels in the past and don't really have a lot of time or energy to grow anything out at this point in my life.

I recently had a young pair spawn and have been some excellent parents and the babies are almost all free swimming with a pretty packed community around them.

Anyone ever have any success raising some part of a spawn within a community tank? It is hard to see them get to this point and not make it so I am considering putting them into a spare 10 gallon tank bit I don't really want to go down that path for lack of time. My kids are also a partial motivation here too in my hopes to find a compromised solution.

 

[ngrubich]

What tank are the angels in currently? What other tank inhabitants?

For the time being, I would personally just leave them in the main tank and see what happens. The angels will spawn again if anything happens to the fry, so that at least gives you some time to work with.

 

[rballi]

It's a 125 and there 4 other angels, some juvi geo tapajos, a mess of tetras and some corys.

 

[Bushkill]

I'm not 100% sure about the Geo, but I think their chances will depend on the species of tetras.

You can help their chances by putting a small nightlight in a remote corner of the tank. The parents will most likely tend to shepherd them in that area at night and fend off any fish wandering into their turf.

They may very well get a handful of them to the point where they resemble small angels at which point they'll start to wander a bit. If you don't feed brine shrimp, they will actually start to peck at the parents' slime coat and fins much the way discus do, but since angels aren't built the same way as discus, the parents may get to look a little ragged depending on how many survive to that stage. They can certainly tolerate a small handful.

In short, it's happened but the number of survivors, if any, depends on what's sharing the tank.

 

[wicca27]

mine did ok i ended up loosing them when they went free swimming though. dad would eat them lol. i also raised some in a hang on breeder box and moved them to a guppy tank once they were to big to fit in a guppys mouth. they grew fine with guppies

and dont forget angels are cichlids and will defend their fry very well. i would be more worried about the parents beating up other fish in the tank. just keep the light on all the time and you should do ok. thats how i did it

 

[rballi]

I have cards and rummynose in there. I have left a left on in the room to keep things under control. I like the idea of the breeder box....but I also live the idea of seeing the adults raise them as I know these traits aren't always seen in domesticated fish. The angels have been aggressive and staked out about 1/2 to 2/3 of the tank at different times. But they aren't over-aggressive and there is plenty of room and hiding spots/line of sight breaks to prevent over aggression. My biggest challenge is my work schedule and the reluctance of my wife to participate in the feeding. I know that discus will aid their dry when feeding my chewing and spitting out little clouds of food, do angels also do this?

 

[Bushkill]

I know that discus will aid their dry when feeding my chewing and spitting out little clouds of food, do angels also do this?

Nope.

In a tank that size, that's where the little nightlight comes in. If you hatch some BBS you can just drop them into the illuminated area with an eyedropper. Both BB and free-swimmers will be drawn to the light. It doesn't take much in the way of BBS to get them going. I only feed once daily and they do just fine. By the time they can take a really finely crushed flake in about 3 weeks or so, they'll start to look like angels and stand a much better chance of survival.