Surprise arrival

When Dave got home from the cottage this evening. I mentioned to him that one of our angel fish was dying. He had been up in the corner of the tank all day. His tail was shredded and the day before, I noticed that one of the other angels was chasing him.

Dave looked over at the tank, and noticed that the other two angels were acting a little odd. Well not odd really, it was a behavior we are quite familiar with. They were pecking at one of the pumps, something they do when they are preparing the surface to lay eggs.

We know this, because we've had angel fish lay eggs before. This isn't the same pair, sadly, that pair died a few years ago. This pair I bought just after we moved here.

Anyway, as Dave got up to take a closer look, I noted that if they were laying eggs, it would explain their aggressive behaviour to the other angel.

Then all of a sudden Dave said, "You don't have to worry about eggs... you've got baby angels." Flabbergasted, I jumped up and sure enough...

The pictures aren't great, because I couldn't use the flash (too much flash glare), but all those little light specs are babies.

Mama angel was surrounded by them. I quickly dug out my floating breeder (a little contraption that floats in the water, but keeps the babies safe from hungry fish.) The things were so tiny, they swam right through the net as I tried to catch them and get them in the breeder. I grabbed a glass and started scooping them out.

Sadly, Mama and Papa were gobbling them up just as fast. (In the wild, Mama will protect them, but in captivity, they usually just eat them). I managed to save about 10... and was hopeful for a few minutes. Even though I had them in the breeder, the chances of all of them surviving are slim.

And then I noticed, the little things were small enough to slip through the vents in the breeders. Eventually, they all headed back out into the tank and were quickly eaten. Sigh.

I'm going to look into getting a different breeder. Chances are, these two will lay eggs again. It's funny - angel fish are suppose to be one of the tougher fish to breed. They are very particular about their surroundings and if things aren't perfect - they won't do it. But in the 11 years Dave and I have been together, this is the third mated pair we've had.

Now, we've never managed to get any babies past fry stage, but I think it's still pretty darn cool!