Angelfish laying eggs
Hi Bill, Noticed you’re directing these two questions to \Steve//, and while he may well be able to add to this, I thought I’d throw this at you in the meantime, as one who used Methylene Blue almost daily — until I switched to Acriflavin finding it to be much more effective. I wasn’t aware you were into Angelfish breeding though, although such topics can be interesting even if you’re not needing the info at this time.
While generally recognized as being a funguscide of sorts, a main purpose of using it with Angelfish eggs (as is the thread here), is to darken the water preventing much damaging light from reaching the fish eggs. Many breeders preferring to use this product just add it to sight, until it gets to a shade they feel would be most protective. As I said, I used to use it for many years (still keep it on hand) until finding Acriflavin to be much more effective as an egg funguscide — but while this is mainly to prevent any infertile/fungused eggs from spreading the fungus spores to other eggs, most any fertilized eggs will not develop fungus anyway. Still, the more one can keep fungus of the infertile eggs to a minimum, the better the immediate environment of the developing eggs.
The amount of Methylene Blue to be used for this purpose will vary from breeder to breeder as they find what’s most effective for them, depending in part upon their water. You’ll find recommendations/uses from 2 or 3 drops per gallon up to 9 drops per gallon (which is “overkill” and totally unnecessary). Part of this equation too depends on the solution strength which was often marketed years ago as up to 10%.
There are fewer firms that market Methylene Blue lately, from what I see, although Kordon remains as one of the main sources, offerring their product simply as “Methylene Blue.” Their solution strength has remained at 2.303% from early on. When using it, I’ve found that about 5 drops per gallon were sufficient for my use. Kordon recommends 1 tsp per 10 gallons (3.0 ppm), which comes out to 60 drops per 10 gallons — or 6 drops per gallon, not much different.
“Assuming regular water changes;” You would only be performing PWC’s if you were allowing the breeding pair to raise their own fry, and then, it is redundant to do so as the parents’ care will preclude fungusing of fertile eggs (and they will be removing any infertile eggs). If hatching the eggs away from the parents to rear the fry separately, its not at all needed to perform PWC’s as there is no bioload to control. The Methylene Blue will retain its strength in the time needed for the eggs to hatch — 3 days, @ 80 o F — and will be seen to weaken (slowly lose color) afterwards but the fry will have hatched by this time. No additional dye medication is required during this hatching period, and before the fry are free-swimming, its beneficial to remove this dye. Happy New Year, Ray
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
