ah ha! discovered why my angels have been cranky! EGGS!

so they went from 2 nickels and a dime size to well over golf ball size in a month or so.

then lately they have been extra pissy with each other, my more mellow guy always hiding from the extra crank two.
the cranky 2 have been attacking the heck out of each other lately, lots of fin nips and raggedy looking all of a sudden.

so i put an ad to find a home for the 2 pissy ones so they could all have their own space and be happier.

so they were supposed to get picked up today by 2 different people, but last night....

Eggs are now covering 2 of my large anubia leaves. One is keeping watch, and fanning them with a fin (hopefully someone can tell me exactly what that is) fertilizing or giving the eggs oxygen...? the other cranky one also keeps the other fish away and confronts anyone who wants a lookyloo including cameras! lol

So with this new development, what should i do next?

Keep the angels until we have babies.

go ahead and give the angles away, maybe they need to stay together now?

the things i have read give so many different ideas on rearing them, that maybe someone can give me the best scenario for my tank.

with the gourami, 3 angels, 3 dwarf puffers, 5 otos, 6 corys - the fry would most likely not be safe in the tank right?

so go ahead and put the eggs in a jar like some sites say to do? i have a new 10 gal that isn't set up, so i could add them to that but no time to cycle.

they could be put into a net breeder in the tank and stay?

i don't have any baby/breeder/egg brine shrimp to feed any new fry, but i do have all kinds of frozen things.

i really don't have the time to be breeding angles, so kinda think this will be a one time thing. unless i move my ghost shrimp breeding from the 20 to the new 10gal and give the breeding pair of angels the 20 gal. EEEEkkkkk this is how fish freaks get 100 tanks!!!! lol


ok so anywho, i need help the sooner the better if the one angel doesn't eat all the eggs. (i didn't see them eat any, but my friend did supposedly)

super cool congratz!!!

Congratz on the the eggs. I would venture to say the fry would not last long in a community tank although I have been surprised many times. The fish will eat some of the eggs and it may be for no reason at all other times they clean away the infertile eggs.

I have found it best to have a bare bottom tank (container) for the young fry. Some of them will fall but won't swim right away and would not do very well with a substrate not to mention it is easier to keep clean.

I would suggest a small container(1 or 2 gallons) and add cycled water in the tank which could be from the tank the parents are in now to maintain similar water parameters. Even though the tank is not cycled you will do so many water changes it won't matter anyways.

As for the parents you don't HAVE to keep them the fry really don't need their parents and can be raised without them. You may want to stress the the person that takes them that they may stop the spawning process when moved. I got mine when the female was about ready to pop and maybe that helped for them to continue doing it(since she laid eggs in there new home) but I really have no way to tell.

Best of luck!

so i can't cut the leaves off the eggs are attached to, cause then the ammonia will build up in the little tank.

so do i risk pulling the entire plant and the whole thing dieing if not in the substrate anymore or scrape them off the leaves and transplant them?

I wouldn't pull the whole plant but like I said they are in a small container and for the first few weeks I do at least a 75% water change daily to remove and excess brine shrimp and waste buildup. I don't worry too much about any ammonia build up because of this. You could try getting the eggs on another surface but I wouldn't put the eggs directly on the bottom on the tank for me it seemed the most fungus build up was on any eggs that fell down there instead on the others that stayed on the pipe in the middle of the tank. You can also dose the smaller tank with anti fungal medicine to aid in their survival.

so for now i have left them in the community tank. they are pretty aggressively defending their leaves from the gourami and angel and sometimes if the puffers try to get an peek, but the corys are nearly an inch away before they even get a second look.

the poor angel will be hiding under a plant in the opposite corner and they get a wild hair to go after him. poor guy.

they have now moved all the HATCHED eggs to another leaf and quickly sucking up any swimmers and attaching them back to the leaf.

I added a piece of slate in hopes they will move all the swimmerettes to it so i can move them all safely to the fry tank. not sure how well that will work though, they are barely attached to the leaf cause even when i barely bumped it trying to get the slate close in the middle of a bunch of plants, several of the eggs puffed right off. luckily the parents grabbed nearly all of them and sucked the last few off the substrate. but if i try to remove the slate... think i will life it a tiny bit and get a tall tupperware thing under it and move it up the slate.

you think that will work? was thinking my net breeder too, but the holes may be too large for the newly hatched fry/eggs.

Ohhh so cool! Good luck! Would love to see pictures!

tried, but my camera can't get good enough close ups. maybe i can snag moms camera tomorrow. i really want to document their baby pics, maybe they will get their own scrapbook too! lol um ya like i have time for that with all these water changes and now also baby ghostshimp breeding and my red cherry shimps breeding and now have to raise baby brine shrimp to feed the baby angels!...

ya, instant aquarium store here! lol

Hahah trust me I understand! I got a new camera for my birthday (thank god!)
and ever since have documented everything xD

Excellent- I hope it works out for you

Julie