This morning the baby Angelfish in my tank took their first strokes at free swimming. Up till this point they had been securely attached to their spawn point on the log. This evening when I came home all the babies had detached from the log and were swimming in a cloud of cuteness around momma.
This is pretty exciting for me! I never expected to have Angels spawn in such a small crowded community tank, but not only have they spawned three times they have so far successfully hatched and raised their babies for a week!
The next few days will be the tricky part. Now that the babies are free swimming they are much harder for the parents to control and easily become targets for any nearby fish looking for dessert. So far the other fish are being kept near the bottom of the tank and under the log (They would have plants to hide in if they did not throw tantrums when I go to conferences and rip them up).
The parents are looking noticeably stressed at this point. I hope they can handle the next few days ok till the babies can fend for themselves. Feeding time was particularly difficult. I have to feed the other fish so they do not want to eat the babies as much, but the food comes down from the top. The parents had a few minutes of freak out while the food slowly settled to the bottom, but they are looking much better now.
I am excited to see how the next few days go! A hundred new Angelfish sure are going to push the tank to the limits till they are old enough to take to the fish store.