Way off topic but maybe somebody knows anyway?

[McEve]

I have this, to me, really weird behaviour on Angel wrigglers. Look at this:

long long strands of fry

Is this normal? or do I have too strong a current in the tank that makes them almost fall off the leaf and hanging on by the teeth?

Sorry about the off topic, but I know some people here have bred Discus, maybe some people know about Angles too...?

[valhallan]

My angel fry used to do this all the time. I can't say exactly what it is, but I doubt it's due to current. My pairs spawned on upright pieces of PVC pipe, which I then transferred into mason jars hanging in a heated tank. I did put an airstone in the jars with them, but only bubbling at a rate of 1-2 bubbles/second. So there was very little flow, and they still did the long strand thing. After a couple of days they would all fall off the pipe and collect at the bottom of the jar and stay this way until they were free swimming.

I can tell you I never lost any because of this though

Val

[McEve]

The knowledge and experience contained within this forum is astounding

Thanks valhallan

[Adam]

McEve, how are you getting on with the Angel fry? I can't say that I noticed this phenomenon with the two Angel spawns I had many years ago. My pair were accomplished egg and fry eaters.

[McEve]

They're doing well, amazingly well actually I've been getting a lot of help from an Angelfish only forum, and so far haven't lost any of them - that I know of anyway. I have snails in the tank with them, but still think I would have seen it if I had.. they're in a bare bottomed 20L so there's not too many places they could escape to either. I also put a nylon sock around the filter to prevent them getting sucked in, they're unbelievably tiny!

here's one of them two days ago:



I removed the leaf with the eggs from the parents tank at day two, as the male was getting sick and tired of the female not wanting to take her fair share of the fanning - so he beat her up! While he was busy doing that the cardinals decided this was the time to rob the cradle. I removed the elaf before too many eggs were taken

It's quite interesting to learn about the angels. I found that the behaviour displayed by the male wasn't my imagination, but actually quite common among Angels. One of the parents may beat the other one up if they suspect the other one is eating eggs as well!

They are now guarding eggs again, and I will leave them too it to see if they sort the whole domestic issues out, the male seem to be very good at looking after the fry, also this time, but the female.... well... she doesn't look like the domestic type! maybe she's just too young


a closeup of the eggs

Another one

One just after they hatched

And the parents:



These little ones are interesting too - and even made me start, and harvest from, a micro worm culture! They're nearly as gross as maggots

I don't think you get the long long string type behaviour if the fry stay with the parents. Apparently it's a gland in their forhead that makes this sticky substance, to aid them holding onto the leaf. If there's a parent close by he or she will pick them up and spit them back onto the leaf long before they get to the stage where this thread gets as long as it does when hatched artificially.

[Adam]

Things are looking good McEve, nice fry. I left my spawn in with the adults, perhaps that's where I went wrong. I noticed that the parents used to pick up the fry in their mouths, swish them around a bit and then spit them back out on the piece of slate. Except sometimes they never spat them out again. Your pair of Angels are still in good condition, my two looked pretty battered not too long after they spawned. They always seemed to fight over the eggs/fry but neither of them were good parents.

Well done.

Adam