Angels and Plecos, Oh My!

[BrianRPrice]

On the same day, my large gold angels have their third spawn attempt--this time on a breeding cone--AND

...I found maybe 40 baby bristlenose plecos in the Amazon tank. Most of them, alas, are *behind* the Amazonia background (I left 2-3" behind). This is good, in one sense, because they're protected from Nancy's voracious angels, however, they will be a DEVIL to remove. If we can remove them...

The little buggers are about 5/8" long at this point. Not sure how old they are; maybe two weeks?

And the male is in his tight little driftwood cave, fanning away still. A second spawn, perhaps?

[Haiven]

Congrats on the eggs and the babies.

If he's "fanning away," chances are that he's got more eggs!"

[BrianRPrice]

Yup! My thought, too. Don't know how I am going to catch any of them. They are amazingly quick, and the background is siliconed in place....

Might have a line on some good double-black veils to compliment the beautiful platinums soon :-)

[T-Angel]

Congrats on the spawn ! Always good to see fellow Angel (and pleco) breeders having luck..

[BrianRPrice]

3rd attempt in 3 weeks. Whew! *IF* one is a male, and not just playing the part...we'll know in a few days, I guess ;-)

[WRabbit]

3rd attempt in 3 weeks.

I once had a Black Marble pair that went through 10-12 attempts but never produced a final product. I ended up trading them to a friend and they (successfully) bred for him 2 weeks later. Go figure.....

[BrianRPrice]

Yeah--that has happened to me before, back in the late 1970s. It could be that they are two females, also, which would account for spawning twice in ten days...

If they don't succeed in taking care of the group, I'll use a spawning jar next. Since they're going once every ten days, shouldn't be long to wait~~

[EAST_TX_RN]

Congrats on the spawning and the baby BN's! I am growing out about 100 regular baby BN's, about 30 LFABN's and 20ish chocolate LFBN's in grow-out tanks now. Another batch left in the main BN tank were picked off by Nancy's angels. I have another clutch of eggs in my chocolate longfin BN tank.
I have the same problem you do, I have a custom background 135 that my Red Jewels use to have their fry. They are always eaten when they come out and this is so frustrating. I hope you have better luck with yours!

[BrianRPrice]

Well, I'm thinking of a long turkey baster to grab fry and put them into a breeder floating in the tank for the first phase of the grow out. With a lot of effort, I grabbed four with a net, but that's kind of silly. A turkey baster will work better, I think.

However, there is enough space behind the decor such that if I feed them, they should grow out. May have to put a sponge on the filter inlets, though.

They seem to love the bubbles and the high-flow areas.

Not so good with the angels. A very high percentage of white eggs today, although a few good ones remain. Parents (or girls) are fanning them, but not removing the white ones. No pipette on hand for me to do it...ordered, but won't arrive for a week or so.

STILL not sure we have a pair and not two females...

[BrianRPrice]

Captured 8 of the Pleco fry thus far, and put them into a livebearer-type isolation floating tankette.

What is the best food for these little guys?

[Haiven]

Throw a piece of zucchini in with them. They'll also eat an algae disk, but will like zucchini better.

[BrianRPrice]

Even got some for the adults, so a great idea :-)

[EAST_TX_RN]

I feed my fry tiny flakes of spirulina and zucchini. I don't have much luck with algae wafers with fry. It seems it will get hairy fungus-looking stuff on it before all of it is eaten. Is your breeder tankette the plastic type with slits? I didn't have much luck with one of those if it is, because of poor water circulation.

[BrianRPrice]

Been a while since I updated this thread--we've got 50-60 bristlenose fry in and around the background (which turns out to be a nifty breeder setup),

AND, the new male gold angel got right with one of our "pair", and now we have free-swimming fry, tended by the parents.

[alta678]

WooHoo! Way to GO!! :D

[pam916]

Congrats!

[BrianRPrice]

http://www.dfwfishbox.com/forums/production/picture.php?albumid=677&pictureid=7273

http://www.dfwfishbox.com/forums/production/picture.php?albumid=677&pictureid=7272

Feeding them both decapsulated brine shrimp eggs--which they both LOVE--and for the angel fry, getting set to give them live baby brine shrimp.

See if this works--

Still not the cool photo thingy other people are using, but~~