I had fry for almost 4 months and they are still the size of rice what gives? they are in a 10gal tank all on their own with about 15 or so fry. I feed them crushed flakes twice a day and water change once a week. I recently found out that an aeration system may help with growth is this possible?? pls help ty.

You don't say what species they are, but assuming they are one of the common livebearers then it is definitely not right that they should still be the size of a grain of rice (they should be about the size of a grain of rice when born). You are obviously not providing them with something quite important and not just aeration.

It is obviously not space as a 50 litre tank for 15 fry should be OK. It could be nutrition as you should try to feed them some live food at least a couple of times a week, if not a couple of times a day (microworm or newly hatched brine shrimp) and fry will always suffer from not getting live food. It could also be water changes as growth will improve if you give them water changes every few days.

If the fry have not grown in 4 months then there is likely something wrong with your husbandry regime and you should seriously look at doing whatever you do differently, not just providing aeration which, in my opinion makes hardly any difference.

so i should feed them more than twice a day? they are platy fry.

yes when there fry feed them 4-6 times a day as much as they will eat really

I have platy fry.

I feed mine 4 to 6 times a day with crushed flake, BBS...and have just started to chop bloodworm up for them which they love, I do a daily water change due to having just a sponge filter in the tank...I was recommended to do this with it being a fry tank, but it has done no harm, my fry are nearly 6 week old and are about this big \______/

I also have a four month old fry (well cannot call it a fry anymore as it is big...lol) one I decided to keep out of a batch I had, and it is not far from being as big as my adult platy.

Debbie

This post has been edited by debbie888: Jul 9 2008, 08:10 PM

The fry have been stunted because you fed them dry food. Most flake or pellet foods are pretty poor nutritionally and although they might sustain fish they won't do much to help them grow.
You should be feeding them on newly hatched brineshrimp (either frozen or live), microworms and various other meat based foods. Frozen prawn and fish can be chopped into small pieces and fed to them several times a day.
The fry need to be fed at least twice a da, preferably more. You want them to have fat stomachs all the time.
You need a filter on the tank to keep the water clean and free of ammonia & nitrite.
You need to do partial water changes every couple of days to dilute the hormones they release when growing. If you don't there can be a build up of this in the water, which will stunt their growth as well.
You need to keep the water warm, between 24 & 28C. The warmer water helps s[peed up their metabolism and they grow faster.

wow lots of info there ty so much everyone. i'm soon to be going ot my lfs to give them a bunch ofmollies that were given to me, so i will get some other food for the fry

i went out and spoke to someone at my lfs. i told her about my situation my fry aren't growing they are 4 months old or so. she told me to purchase these frozen foods called... Hikari Mega Tropical Bio-Pure. Here is the link for it..

Food

Please tell me if this is what i should actually be feeding is it okay?? she told me it has tons of neutrients and it will help them to grow very fast. I'm not sur ehow to even give it to them if it's frozen LOL. I guess i let it thaw out then shut it up to bits.



This post has been edited by omega59: Jul 11 2008, 09:26 PM

they might be inerbred.....

i dont htink that would cause them not to grow.

I would get BBS. Way better. The food you got is more for Adult fish i would think.

Don’t waste your time with the Hikari Mega Tropical Biopure food. It doesn't have anything of value in it. Look at the protein levels (12%) that is useless for growing up fish. Most tropical flake foods have 20+%.
Just go and buy frozen baby brineshrimp or some prawn/shrimp for human consumption or even from a bait/fishing store. Keep it in the freezer and each day take one out, thaw it out and remove the shell. Then use a pr of scissors to cut it into little tiny pieces and offer a few bits at a time to the fish. Keep offering them food until they no longer eat any. Then syphon out any uneaten bits. Do the same thing again later that day.
You can feed the remaining prawn to your other fishes.
Once all the fish have been fed then throw away any remaining prawn.

You can also invest in a microworm culture and offer that to the fry. You can keep the cultures going for years and have a continuous ready food supply for baby fish.

oh i didn't know that this food is not good
i have some bloodworm (dried).
i will have to wait untill i can get a ride out again to the shop and buy some brimeshrimp dried.

ty.

I use a prepared growth food that runs close to 50% protein content. I must agree that a 12% food is not a good growth food but may be OK for an adult to live on. Once they are done growing, the fish don't need such high protein content in their diets.

I would get Frozen if i were you. The freeze dried floats at the top, and they wont be as keen to eat it, and it must be BABY brine shrimp, the adults have almost no nutritional value at all.

omg. are you serious.
i have 4 platy fry now.
and the mother platy.. ages ago. was pregnant i thought.
and then i put her in the bottom tank. (that i had setup for baby fish and stuff)
and i didn't notice she had any.. so i put her back into the normal tank.
and for about two weeks after. i noticed 4 baby fry. i didnt know where they came from. i also didnt know whether they were guppies or plattys. and they were platys. and that means they didn't get fed for about two weeks!
and also.. it made sense because the platys stomic went back to normal.
lmao. so anyway. they didnt get fed for about two weeks.
so i fed them crushed up tropical flakes.. straight away.
and there in a tank.. not with the others up the top..
but pretty much they have the tank to there selfs. because theres only 2 breeding traps sitting in there with about 30 baby guppy fry in it. and theres the other breeding trap in it with 1 pregnant female guppy.
so they have quite alot of room.
and they have grown alot.. and none of them have died since. they are about a fingernail size now. or half a fingernail size for people with longer nails.
and i think there going fine.
i don't know whats wrong with yours though.
ooh. i feed mine once a day.
and there fine.
sorry. i cant help.
xox

sound slike your on speed.

jennakid said what?

i have no idea LOL. But thanks for responding