Bellus angelfish breeding project

chad vossen

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Another of our angelfish pairs have started spawning! Actually, by the size of tonight's spawn, I'd say they've been busy for a few weeks and we just haven't noticed.

This pair was sent to us from Quality Marine, so we are grateful for their support on this project. As with most wild caught fish, this pair had lost some weight by the time we received them. They immediately took to LRS reef frenzy, and LRS fertility blend, which they are fed twice a day. After a few months, they've gained back all their weight and are now in breeding condition.

We are planning to attend MACNA, so we are not starting any larval runs right now. When we get back, I'll probably give the multibar first priority, but we'll be starting the bellus soon after.

Video of their spawn

 

Daniel@R2R

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That's super exciting!
 
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chad vossen

chad vossen

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We've started a big batch of bellus angels this past weekend. This is the most angelfish larvae that we've started with, so it'll be very different compared to past angelfish attempts.
Got a good picture showing the bellus prolarvae. This is only 50% of the spawn at most. The prolarvae in this photo are barely 3-4 hours old.
21199728_1631043843586295_5956503936730797691_o.jpg



After 3 days, the prolarvae develop the mouth, eyes, gut, and fins. At this point they are nearly ready to begin feeding. First feeding typically starts late day 3, or into day 4.

Here's a video of the larvae in the tub at day 3 -
 

revhtree

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We've started a big batch of bellus angels this past weekend. This is the most angelfish larvae that we've started with, so it'll be very different compared to past angelfish attempts.
Got a good picture showing the bellus prolarvae. This is only 50% of the spawn at most. The prolarvae in this photo are barely 3-4 hours old.
21199728_1631043843586295_5956503936730797691_o.jpg



After 3 days, the prolarvae develop the mouth, eyes, gut, and fins. At this point they are nearly ready to begin feeding. First feeding typically starts late day 3, or into day 4.

Here's a video of the larvae in the tub at day 3 -


This is beyond awesome!!!
 

Abhishek

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We've started a big batch of bellus angels this past weekend. This is the most angelfish larvae that we've started with, so it'll be very different compared to past angelfish attempts.
Got a good picture showing the bellus prolarvae. This is only 50% of the spawn at most. The prolarvae in this photo are barely 3-4 hours old.
21199728_1631043843586295_5956503936730797691_o.jpg



After 3 days, the prolarvae develop the mouth, eyes, gut, and fins. At this point they are nearly ready to begin feeding. First feeding typically starts late day 3, or into day 4.

Here's a video of the larvae in the tub at day 3 -


This is sheer unbelievable !!! Can't wait to come by and check them ..​

Thank you for sticking to my choice of which angelfishes to be bred first !!!
I book the first pair right now itself .
You are the most dedicated hobbyist I have ever had the opportunity to meet ..

Regards,
Abhishek
 
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chad vossen

chad vossen

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Here's a day 4 photo showing food in the gut. This is a critical first stage for angelfish, as very few food options available are small enough for larval angels to eat. The next 20 or so days will be fairly uneventful, the muscle along the spine will thicken and compress as they flatten into a typical angelfish shape. Around 20ish days they should reach flexion, which is when we expect to lose most of them. After that, it's fairly smooth sailing till settlement.
21273639_1634627526561260_7689005505995001388_o.jpg
 

revhtree

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Here's a day 4 photo showing food in the gut. This is a critical first stage for angelfish, as very few food options available are small enough for larval angels to eat. The next 20 or so days will be fairly uneventful, the muscle along the spine will thicken and compress as they flatten into a typical angelfish shape. Around 20ish days they should reach flexion, which is when we expect to lose most of them. After that, it's fairly smooth sailing till settlement.
21273639_1634627526561260_7689005505995001388_o.jpg

Thanks for keeping us updated. What is flexion for the people who may not know...like me? :)
 

pa1ntbru5h

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Wow this is awesome! So many of the rarer fish are able to be captive bred nowadays!
 
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chad vossen

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chad vossen

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We got to day 15 on that last batch of bellus, but lost most of them around day 8 due to our copepod cultures not producing enough to keep up. After day 8, we kept them alive on rotifers, and scrapped this batch to prepare for the next.
We are gearing up for another larval run, just waiting on our copepod cultures to mature a little bit more.

Here's a fun video we did last night showing some bellus eggs that we harvested. You'll notice that healthy fertile eggs float, while infertile eggs sink to the bottom.

 

revhtree

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We got to day 15 on that last batch of bellus, but lost most of them around day 8 due to our copepod cultures not producing enough to keep up. After day 8, we kept them alive on rotifers, and scrapped this batch to prepare for the next.
We are gearing up for another larval run, just waiting on our copepod cultures to mature a little bit more.

Here's a fun video we did last night showing some bellus eggs that we harvested. You'll notice that healthy fertile eggs float, while infertile eggs sink to the bottom.



That's very cool!
 
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chad vossen

chad vossen

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I just love taking video of the eggs developing after the spawns. I finally got my lighting figured out so it's not flickering, as well as taking the video in horizontal mode! These improvements really helped the quality of the video, which can be viewed here. Watch in HD for best results :)
We have several days worth of angels added to a tub right now, they've started eating so we'll see how the next 7 days go.

 

revhtree

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I just love taking video of the eggs developing after the spawns. I finally got my lighting figured out so it's not flickering, as well as taking the video in horizontal mode! These improvements really helped the quality of the video, which can be viewed here. Watch in HD for best results :)
We have several days worth of angels added to a tub right now, they've started eating so we'll see how the next 7 days go.



This is totally amazing! Are these from the eggs you separated recently in an earlier post?
 

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