Fry and holiday

[CV26]

Hello

I asked about holiday feeding the other week and thought I was all set. However we have found little 2 fry in the tank. I'm feeling a bit attached to them as they're the last ones we'll have as we lost their mum the other week.

So with a week away what do I do?
- leave them in the breeder net and hope they make it through (I have someone calling in every few days to check on the tanks but they wont be around every day to feed the fry)
- take them to a friend for the week - the little plastic tank we have wouldn't be cycled and I wouldn't want to ask the friend to have to do water changes...how bad could a 10l tank get in 8 days with 2 small fry?

They cant stay in the main tank as the pump is pretty strong and they keep ending up in the back in the sponge section of the filter. Plus if they did manage to stay in the main section, the other fish may take an interest if they're hungry and cause damage or worse.

Any thoughts?

 

[Colin_T]

Get a 40 litre plastic storage container, fill it with tank water and add a heap of plants. Put a light above the container and have it on for about 16 hours a day. Add an airstone so it's bubbling away a bit but not too much.

Put the babies in it and don't bother feeding them and don't bother with a filter. They can eat the microscopic organisms on the plants and the plants will keep the water clean.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I agree. Put the plants in now and let them start trying to grow a little biofilm. In the winter when I stop feeding my pond fish I put lots of anacharis and hornwort in for them to nibble on. Good luck!

 

[CV26]

Thanks both. However we dont have the time, or the spare kit for that kind of set up. The fry have turned up rather last minute.

Any suggestions for someone with less than 24 hours to spare? Sorry should have said in my OP that we were going away imminently!

We have got some and sitters popping in a couple of times to check on the tanks - maybe they could drop a tiny bit of flake in for them.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Fry really need to be fed several times a day.

 

[Colin_T]

Put the fry in a breeding net in the main tank and add some plants.

Do not get someone to add food to the fry tank unless they know how to keep baby fish, because they will stick too much food in and cause all sorts of water quality problems.

 

[FishGuest5123]

How long will you be gone?

 

[Colin_T]

pretty sure they are going for a week. see following link. I assume its the same holiday
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/holiday-feeding.451818/#post-3815873

 

[FishGuest5123]

Gotcha. Thanks!

 

[CV26]

Thanks both for the advice.

In the end I took some cuttings off one of our rapid growing plants and popped them in the baby net. Figured this was better than nothing.

I then got the sitter to feed the net a couple of times. I'd crushed up a tiny amount of flake and popped it in spare containers so they couldn't overfeed.

One fry made it through the week and looks great so far.

The other one we nicknamed Houdini as it managed to get out the net a few times before we went away...it vanished again the day after we left and hasn't been seen since so who knows exactly what happened to it in the end. We had checked the net for holes too so I can't figure out its escape route!

Hopefully with our current stock there won't be any more fry to cause me a panic in the future.