Can I Feed I Feed My Livebearer Fry Crushed Vacation Blocks?

[jdsworld8]

A few of you may remember me posting a while back asking what is the best fish to breed. I took some of your suggestions and went out to buy some balloon mollies, platys, and guppies. I now have 11 balloon molly fry, 40 red platy fry, and around 50 guppy fry all from 4 fish, and in a 15 gallon tank. The Platys have not grown at all. Is this normal? They will be three weeks old on monday and are only the size of new born guppies, just a little thicker. THe balloon mollies have been doing well eating and growing and are about twice the size of the platys ad guppies, aside from a few random balloon molly deaths. If anyone knew why the balloon molly fry were randomly dying please tell me. Also, the tank has a heater and plenty of space and I'm getting more BBS tomorrow or Sunday.

Thanks, Jay

 

[Harlequins]

Platy fry are very small compared to molly & guppy fry anyway,my guppy fry appear to grow twice has fast has the platys,i do a 20% w/c and bottom clean on the the fry tank daily,this also encourages growth of young fry.

Random deaths do happen,possibly weak fry.I feed all my livebearer fry (around 250 of them)3/4 times a day with either tetra baby powder or baby brine shrimp.

 

[OldMan47]

The way to grow fry more quickly is to do lots of water changes and feed until the fry are satisfied. That is more than we would do with the greedy adults in terms of letting the fry eat all that they want. I would no way try to feed a vacation block to any fry, they need small and easy to eat foods. The BBS and even crushed adult flake would be better food for growth. The mollies, in general, will be healthiest on a high protein food that contains lots of vegetable matter. For that I use a spirulina and algae food that is also high in protein.

 

[kelly528]

I'm sure those vacation feeders are 90% filler and 10% cruddy feed. Better off with specialty livebearer fry food.

 

[jdsworld8]

Thanks for all your answers guys. I have now been feeding crushed flakes and BBS.

I also thought I'd do an update.

I have also noticed something else that was odd. The platy fry almost always stay near or on the bottom and only eat food on the bottom, the guppy fry stay to the top, and the balloon molly fry go everywhere. The Platy and balloon molly fry will be 4 weeks on tuesday and the guppy fry will be two weeks on tuesday and thursday. The Guppy fry have already surpassed the platy fry but the balloon molly fry are still leading the pack. SInce the fry have been born I've had 10 casualties. 7 platy fry, 2 balloon molly fry, and 1 guppy fry who died randomly. SO now I have 51 guppy fry, 37 platy fry, and 12 balloon molly fry.

 

[OldMan47]

Yep, you are right. Mollies are mostly middle swimmers, Xiphophorus are almost always top swimmers and P reticulata are almost always bottom fry. Right after a drop, you look for the platy/swords hiding in the top corners of a tank, the guppies hiding in the gravel and the mollies trying to hide in ornaments, plants and such away from both extremes. It is a quicker way to find new fry than if you don't know where to look.