I first became acquainted with Lee Gordon, the aquarist behind Angelmania.net, in 2012 while on the hunt for broodstock for my own Angelfish rearing efforts. I have always been impressed with the quality of the fish he produces, and the results are evidenced by how often people compliment me on particular broodstock specimens—which often happen to be directly from Gordon’s breeding. (He is located outside Buffalo, New York in North Tonawanda.)
I’ve shared my own artificial hatching methods for freshwater Angelfish in past installments (artificial Angelfish incubation Part 1 and Part 2, and removing angelfish eggs from the substrate for artificial incubation), but I recently discovered that Gordon has documented the entire Angelmania rearing process in a series of videos, which we’re excited to share with you here.
Prepare yourself for a crash-course in artificially rearing Angelfish (Pterophyllum sp.). Gordon’s methods are very different from my own, amply demonstrating that there’s more than one way to approach a problem successfully. Gordon’s techniques could possibly be applied to many similar substrate-spawning fish.
A Second Method: The One-Gallon Hatchery
We should point out that the incubation setups used by Gordon are similar (if not the same) to the one-gallon jar hatchery setups offered by Steve Rybicki of AngelsPlus; if interested in trying these setups, you can get the required foam and risers from AngelsPlus, and gallon jars are pretty easy to come by if you know where to look (I got dozens of them from a friend who works at a pizza restaurant—their olives come in one-gallon glass jars). AngelsPlus has a video of their spawn rearing kit too.
To say I find the methodology shown by Gordon intriguing is an understatement—it offers the ability to keep dozens of spawns together, and yet completely segregated, in one large aquarium. The net result is that one large water change can handle all the young fish simultaneously.
We hope you find Angelmania’s videos as thought-provoking as we did!
Step 1 – Pulling The Tile and Setting up Artificial Incubation – running time 3:20
Eggs are pulled from parents shortly after spawning. Gordon will surprise you by using straight tap water without dechlorination, and the addition of 10 drops H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) per gallon, for the first 24 hours of incubation. A water bath is used to maintain a stable 82F temperature in the 1 gallon incubation jar.
Step 2 – 100% Water Change for Day 2 of Artificial Incubation – running time 3:30
At 24 hours post spawn, Gordon performs a 100% water change by setting up a new jar with straight tap water matched at 82F, dosing with 5 drops H2O2 per gallon. This covers the next 24 hours.
Steps 3 & 4 – 100% Water Change at 48 hours; Moving Wrigglers at 72 hours post spawn – runing time 1:36
Gordon repeats the 100% water change at the 48 hour mark, and between this time and the 72 hour mark, fry start hatching. This video ends with “part 1” of Step 4, encouraging hatching so that fry may be moved to the “fry kit” at this 72 hour (Day 3) stage of the process.
Step 5 – Transferring Wigglers to Fry Kit & Incubation – running time 5:59
Gordon demonstrates just how robust angelfish wrigglers (or wigglers) really are, filtering them from the hatching jar using a reusable coffee filter, rinsing and swirling them before ultimately pouring them into the incubation jar. The jar setup is submerged, and they’ll spend the next 4 days in this incubation until they become free swimming fry.
Step 6a – Fry Become Free Swimming – running time 2:11
Gordon documents the progress of our clutch as it starts to free swim on their 7th day post spawn.
Step 6b – First Feeding – running time 4:46
Gordon harvests and rinses newly hatched baby brine shrimp, and uses a syringe to easily inject the nauplii into the rearing jar.
Early Growout – running time 1:27
Gordon again surprises us by showing how he uses the “fry kit” jars right inside growout tanks containing older Angelfish juveniles. Gordon keeps these babies in the fry jars for the first couple weeks before releasing them into growout tanks.
Example of Grown-Out Angels – running time 0:49
Gordon rounds out his video series with a glimpse at the fruits of his labor. Hundreds of wild-cross juveniles feast on a treat of decapsulated brine shrimp eggs.
BONUS – Angelmania’s Brine Shrimp Hatching – running time 4:08
Gordon capped off the series with an extra bonus video showing how he created and set up his brine shrimp hatching for the hatchery.
Source – Angelmania.net Video Center
Hi Matt,
These videos are great. I love the idea. The only problem is that 6a and 6b are showing the same video. 6b should be showing the first feeding.
Thank you,
Jack Kraft
Editor
Sacramento Aquarium Society
Thanks Jack…not sure how the url got duplicated! It’s fixed now.
Amazing and informative videos! Thanks for sharing!!
By far one of the most helpful tutorials for angelfish rearing I have seen to date. Thank you all so much for taking the time and effort of putting this together! -Ken from KY
Nice videos, very helpful. Thank you!
I’ve watched your video’s over and over. I do exactly as you show. My problem is that after 3-4 days free swimming they all die off. I’m in Ft Lauderdale and our water is very different. So I tried using the parents water, and as I do water changes with aged water I have in 5 gallon containers and Spring water from the store with 2 drops per gallon water conditioner. Out of maybe 200 eggs I have only 3 left still in the jar after 7 days free swimming.What am I doing wrong?
Susan, You’re no doing anything wrong. The methods being used to rear Angelfish as appearing in Amazonas is extremely unorthodox to say the least, and unless extreme care is taken in following all the steps provided, just as you’re experiencing, this will unfortunately turn to failure. I don’t know what methods you’ve used prior to trying these, but Angelfish eggs — presumed to have been deposited on a length of slate — need only be placed in a 2 1/2 gallon tank filled with your dechloraminized (or dechlorinized) tap water (maintained at 80 o) to which Acriflavin has been added to prevent fungus. A large partial water change may be made after hatching (but before free-swimming) and the fry should then be best moved to a rearing tank – preferably a 20 gallon Long tank – as they become free-swimming, in which is a slow airstone is added the first week and a sponge filter added the second week. the airstone ensures that feeding of brine shrimp nauplii will be circulating past they fry’s noses continually at all feedings for them to easily feed upon. The bioload of these fry will be absolutely minimal in 20 gallons during the first week (no filtration is needed yet) to the extent that nitrogenous organic wastes will be undetectable, and to explain the use of a 20 gallon tank vs a 10 gallon tank, all fish secrete a growth-inhibiting hormone which will tend to stunt the fish if not reared in a large enough quantity of water with adequate partial water changes to not only keep nitrogenous organic waste at a minimum but also to keep the growth-inhibiting hormones at as low a level as possible between PWC’s. Newly hatched brine shrimp nauplii may be fed to the fry, with fastest growth of the fry occurring with five (5) feedings per day; fewer feedings may be made, however. A 1/3 partial water change may be made during the second week using a section of airline to syphon the tank water into bucket(s) while carefully cleaning debris off the bottom and while watching to not allow any fry near the airline when doing this. After the third week, the fry may be moved to a 50 gallon tank to complete their growth to quarter size. Please email me with any questions you may have. My hatchery has been in operation since 1953.
NICE VIDEO VERY HELPFUL….THANK YOU….
Great!!Very useful..thanks..
Years ago I had a pair breed, leaving their eggs on a piece of slate in a 5 gallon tank. I put the parents back in the community tank and went away for a few days, leaving the roe just as they were, no heater, no nothing. Came back and had babies swimming around! I don’t remember what I fed them but a lot of them survived to 25-cent size and then they all started dying. I don’t know why because they looked perfectly healthy.