Angelfish babies starting to free swim!

December 20, 2013

IMG_4403

Last weeks a pair of my Angelfish laid their third set of eggs. Angelfish eggs typically take 60 hours to hatch. After hatching the babies have a food sack attached still and will suction themselves to the area the eggs were in. They do this for around 6 days. During this time they look like a wiggling mass of white mold as they slowly eat through their food and begin to develop eyes and part of the texturing that will make their adult pattern. On the sixth day they slowly begin to release their hold and start to swim around. This is very stressful in a community tank like mine. The parents simultaneously attempt to keep the babies safe and grouped together as well as keeping all the other fish away. My tank is chaos right now. The rest of the fish are being pushed into one tiny corner. The babies are cute though. Check out the video below to see their first swimming attempts.

8 thoughts on “Angelfish babies starting to free swim!

  1. mikezielonka (December 20, 2013)

    Ummm…Honestly Ben….They kind of look like baby sperm……

    1. mikezielonka (December 20, 2013)

      😛

    2. Ben Lobaugh (blobaugh) (December 20, 2013)

      Careful now, NikV may read this 😉

  2. Jehnean (December 20, 2013)

    Aw, baby fishies! Okay, girl moment over.

    1. Ben Lobaugh (blobaugh) (December 20, 2013)

      Think of it at inspiration for your day and watch it over and over and over and… 🙂

  3. Ben Lobaugh Online » A cloud of Angels
  4. Richard A. (December 21, 2013)

    What about that filter? do you have the kind of filter that could suck them up?

    1. Ben Lobaugh (blobaugh) (December 21, 2013)

      The type of filter that the babies would get sucked into is not actually that healthy for a fish tank. Great for fish stores or people who demand absolutely clear water, but it also kills a lot of the beneficial bacteria in the water. I use an under gravel filter. You can read a ton about the wars between filters online, but with 27 years of experience with fish the under gravel has always been my favorite for fish comfort and achieving the most natural water state. The water does not look as clean with particles float around in it, but it is clean. As a comparison stick your head in a lake sometime and see how clean it looks :).

      The under gravel filters work by sucking water down through the gravel which is laid over a raised piece of plastic with holes in it. All the junk in the tank gets pulled down there. This creates the best possible soil for plants too. Here is a diagram of how it works.
      under gravel filter