BBS and The Fry

I got a good amount of BBS (baby brine shrimp) to hatch today, and have been feeding freely to the swarm of angel babies. There really are a good number of them surviving. This is the end of day 3, and that is much better than the last batch, which by this stage had dwindled to a dozen. I am feeding very frequently, as I am home with them all day and the tank is in my office where I work.

However, I am keeping up with PWCs, and performed a large one this morning on that tank, the 37-gallon and on Otis' 10-gallon. The last half-gallon or so of Otis' tank I added the brackish water that I am using to gradually wean him brackish. This is to make it easy on him, and also to grow SW beneficial bacteria, which is not something you really think about when converting FW to BW, but I am taking my time. He is as adorable as ever. I don't know why it has taken me so long in the hobby to finally get a charming little fellow like him.

The 37-gallon has 3 large apple snails in it, and I found the 4th good-sized one on the filter intake this morning - not sure why - but I seem to have horrendous luck keeping snails alive, for some reason. So now we are down to 3 but they seem all right.

I got my CO2 back up and running on the 150-gallon (thanks, Rick!) and have begun contemplating additions to that tank. There is so much room, and not very many fish. I am going to Azalea Aquariums tomorrow with my friend, Deborah, and that is where you will often see P. leopoldi since I got mine those many months ago. Apparently Keith is still getting them in. I am thinking about getting a few more to add to my group (5) and put them in the empty 37-gallon for now to quarantine them. I don't know if this would upset the apple cart too much or not - it would be just my luck that there is a blood bath in there when I add 2 more - but I would like more if possible.

I inquired on the Angelfish Study Group/Finarama forum about this and I was told that I should to be able to add a couple of more, and then someone else inquired about how old mine are, because they had some that were much larger than domestic angels (5-year-old fish), and it was curious that mine were so small (much smaller than many domestics). I am now wondering where I have "gone wrong" and am investigating this. Should they be much bigger? I always thought leopoldi were the smallest of the Pterophyllum, or at least that is what you often read about them.

This then leads to the question of how old my leopoldi were when I purchased them. I assumed they were not juveniles, because they did not have that "look" that juvenile angelfish have, with fins too big for their bodies, etc. I have never kept these before, much less wild caught strains, so for all I know these were juvies and they are growing too slowly for me to notice. I am taking special care with their diet and they get a varied one, with NLS pellets, various frozen fare, live food, and occasionally freeze-dried tubifex. They also will play around with the sinking pellets I put in for the bottomfeeders. I do 50% weekly PWCs and feel like they are in the best conditions I can provide, so I am not sure what I'd do differently, but they sure seem stunted. It is possible they are like discus, and some sort of misstep early in their development will keep them permanently puny.