Angelfish grow-outs

[Ryan]

I've had a long history with angels. They were the first fish I ever kept when my parents bought me a 10 gallon tank at 5 years old, and the first fish I successfully spawned and raised when I was 12. Over the years I've churned out thousands of them, then I burn out and work with something else for a while. Still, I almost always have one or two floating around the house. They go with virtually everything. I've kept them in 55 gallon tanks with small community fish and 200+ gallon tanks with large SA cichlids.

At the end of July I ordered an assortment from Lee Gordon @ Angelmania. They were advertised as dime-sized but most actually came in slightly smaller than that. I got three varieties -- blue marbles, pinoy paraiba (that I've wanted to work with for about six years), and some 50% wild Brazilian crosses. Here are some videos I took after I'd had them less than a week:

July 22, 2014

[Ryan]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

July 22, 2014

[Ryan]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

For those who've never seen them, pinoy paraibas are a dark colored angel, usually gray or black, with large patches of shiny blue-green iridescence on them. It takes time for the iridescence to develop. They are basically black blushing angelfish but they include a Philippine Blue gene. These were originally created by Kenneth Kennedy who isolated the blue gene and started breeding it into several angel strains. For those that were around then, you may remember that it caused an uproar in the angel community because people believed his pictures were Photoshopped and there were a lot of people claiming that there was no such thing as a blue gene. Now, several years later, they are still the hot ticket in the angel world and the blue gene has been bred into every variety of angel. The sheen is subtle in pictures but beautiful in person, especially under natural light.

Pinoy paraibas, because of their beauty, are in high demand, and therefore hard to get your hands on. I rarely see them offered. I jumped at the chance for these. As you'll see in my pictures later, the iridescent sheen is starting to come in. These are going to be very handsome fish.

The fish that have surprised me, though, are the wild crosses. They are very close to breed standard in terms of shape and finnage. They are turning into gorgeous fish. A couple are developing dark red spots on their backs (you can see it in a few pictures). I have decided to order several more of these because they'll make great crosses. The fish contain 50% wild Brazilian blood and also carry a stripeless gene, making them ghosts (hence the lack of full, dark vertical bars like silvers).

The blue marbles are wide-fin and they were the smallest of the fish I got. They were just over pea-sized when I received them. They are still the smallest and have awkward shapes right now, but I attribute that to the fact that their fins are shorter and stumpier, and it gives them the appearance of having a giant body and tiny fins. I'm sure they'll grow into them as they get older.

[Ryan]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

August 13, 2014

Here we are about a month after I received them. At this point they're probably 10 - 12 weeks old and quarter sized.

[Ryan]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

September 7, 2014

This brings us up to today. I was out of town for about seven days and left my mom in charge of a single daily feeding. They probably would look better if I'd been here for their regular feedings and water changes, but they're not too shabby, all things considered. Hopefully they'll be back on track now with the increased feeding.

[Second Hand Pat]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

They look great Ryan and grew a lot. The wild crosses are my favorites that is probably not a surprise. What are you feeding them?

[Ryan]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

Blackworm flake, FDBW, NLS Grow pellets, and occasionally frozen bloodworms. They're not too picky, but surprisingly they'd rather have flake than FDBW or bloodworms.

They only get two water changes a week, about 90% each time. There are only 14 of them in a 55. I'm hoping to eventually upgrade them to a 125 or 150 because the angels seem to grow better in larger tanks, IMO.

[Second Hand Pat]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

Thanks Ryan, the darn little altums are showing a strong preference for Al's FDBWs. Thanks for the heads up on larger tanks. I sort of suspected that.

[Ryan]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

^ Even moreso with altums. They grow much larger than scalare.

[Second Hand Pat]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

^ Even moreso with altums. They grow much larger than scalare.

I believe that with all that fin they carry. Larger tank is no problem. There is a 180 calling my name in the near future.

[pcsb23]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

Looking good Ryan, agree about tank size, particularly height!

[John_Nicholson]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

Looking good. Like you I have had angels off and on through the years. I pulled a few hundred fry from my koi pair this weekend. When you get yours up to size and start raising a few please let me know. I might want to pick up a few.

-john

[Ryan]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

^ Will do. I think I turned Al on to angels several years ago, and now Pat's been bitten by the angel bug, too. I won't rest until everyone admits that angels are great. But really, they're so forgiving compared to discus and they really can be very attractive as adult fish, so it's a no-brainer for me. I enjoy having them around.

[Second Hand Pat]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

Yea, it's all Ryan's fault,

[rickztahone]

Re: Angelfish grow-outs

You can already see faint red color on the anal and dorsal fins! Very nice. Great looking babies