Spawning of the Pterophyllum Scalares 'Santa Isabel'

[CheckerBox]

Hi Folks,

It's been a while since I got my hands on the Santa Isabel (SI) angelfish. After almost two years of waiting, I've finally managed to breed this beautiful strain of wild scalares.

It has been a dream come true indeed. It started with the initial stage of persuading friends to help me import in these fish. Then came the frustration of quarantining these sensitive fishes and rearing them to good health. Of course, how can I forget the agony of tackling a few disease outbreaks during the quarantine process and the anguish of loosing a few individuals in between. Then it was the roller coaster ride of convincing these wild fishes to pair up in captivity plus a few false alarms along the way. It has been a long wait. And honestly, I was on the verge of giving up on this project when the unexpected happened.

I managed to get about 5 pairs from the various batches of adults. Earlier this year, I noticed that one pair was down with septicemia and a few others were not well too. Out of frustration, I netted out all the paired SI and threw them into a 4 ft tank for treatment. To my surprise, they managed to “re pair-up” after recovering from the treatment. And one pair became exceptionally aggressive towards others. The aggression was unlike the usual pairing behaviour or “territorial dispute” commonly seen in angelfish. To me, it was an obvious spawning behavior.

So I separated this pair from the rest. Then one fine day when I woke up in the morning, I saw the below.



But the eggs were eaten up the next day. I guess the pair wasn’t ready yet or was simply stressed as I kept going near to observe them. So it was back to the waiting game. Also, I’ve decided to do artificial raising the next time and not take the chance of allowing the pair to do the brood-caring themselves. I removed the money plant, hoping that they will spawn on the slate, which will allow me to artificially hatch the fries.

Here's the pair


Pair facing the slate


The pair spawned again a few weeks later. I was overseas for about a week and I returned home to see wigglers attached onto the slate. I immediately remove the slate carefully (see below) and raise the fries myself.




Some pics of the fries at about 2 weeks old







Here are some old threads on these Santa Isabel to share.

http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...t=santa+isabel
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...t=santa+isabel

[bettafish]

Congratulations more beautiful fishes to better the angel gene pool.

[CheckerBox]

Pics when the fries are about 6 weeks old









Here's a video to share. (pardon the wrong camera setting to grayscale)

YouTube Video

[canopy]

Bro, Congrats!!!! Amazing, you did it!!

[NCTony]

Congratulations, local breed SI

[Ben]

Congrats bro. Amazing what you have done with angels.

[onlyyouknow]

The finnage of the pair looks great!

[Red]

Congratulations bro..looking forward to see more SI soon.

[Jordan Tiong]

Congratulations , the fries are very active & nice . Well done . Thanks for sharing .

[evolution]

beautiful finnages even as fries, congratulations the successful spawn