Danio Fry

[lyolya]

Hi, guys.

So my first batch (around 20,30) of danio fry died, all of them. I had both eggs and fry there. Some eggs went bad i guess, and maybe that caused their death? idk.

Anyway, my fish spawned again yesterday, so today i cleaned gravel and spent like 5 hours trying to suck em up one by one. Overall i got like 50+. This time i have no eggs in there, just newly hatched fry.

My 20 gallon tank is cycling w pretty high nitrite levels. So not much good stuff there. I set up a brand new small 5 gal tank w a small sponge + stone air filter, a small heater and a fry net box with all the fry in it. I heard you shouldn't feed fry until they finish consuming their yolk saks? but they are so tiny, how can i tell? Others say feed them once they are free swimming - well how do i know that? i got some individuals that attach to the net at some time, and other time they swim on surface.

I just got the first bite food, so if you were wondering that's what i plan on feeding them. I don't have a pond with green water, and i don't think i have a whole lot of good bacteria in the newly-established tank. and no plants either, i'm waiting for big tank to establish first.

My females seem to plump up.. againn.. so i expect more fry too.

any advice please! i don't know what to do so that they don't die again. i'm new to fish keeping and don't know much.

EDIT: i got a little impatient bc 4 of the little guys r swimming around, not like the rest on the walls of the net, so i dropped a bit of the first bites for them. they seem to approach it, but i don't know if they are eaing or not. then i got worried i put too much food, so i tried to get out some. now im left w some tiny pieces floating around. i decided to put light for like half hour (im in america, and it's 1am) b4 going to sleep in hopes of them eating something.

also, i don't know how to clean the net from the food sinse all the tiny guys are in there.

 

[fluttermoth]

Put the fry lose in the tank; don't try and keep them in the net.

Raising fry is always walking a line between making sure they get enough food and not polluting the water!

The only way I've found is to feed lots and syphon the leftovers out at frequent intervals; at least twice a day, three if you can.

You probably need a magnifying glass to see if they've absorbed the yolk. It is difficult to tell if they've been eating or not. Try and get some decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. They're fed just as they are without hatching and are useful 'cos you can see the colour of them through the fish's belly, so you can tell if they're eating or not.

 

[lyolya]

Put the fry lose in the tank; don't try and keep them in the net.

Raising fry is always walking a line between making sure they get enough food and not polluting the water!

The only way I've found is to feed lots and syphon the leftovers out at frequent intervals; at least twice a day, three if you can.

You probably need a magnifying glass to see if they've absorbed the yolk. It is difficult to tell if they've been eating or not. Try and get some decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. They're fed just as they are without hatching and are useful 'cos you can see the colour of them through the fish's belly, so you can tell if they're eating or not.

thank u for the advice!


i let them lose. some are hanging out at the top, others still hanging on to the net that i lowered to the bottom of the tank. I didn't find decapsulated baby brine shrimp eggs, but i did find frozen baby brine shrimp. i tried feeding it to them, but i can't tell if they are interested in it. they didn't seem to attack it for sure. i'm also not sure how r they ever gonna find food when they float right under the surface of the water.

actually, i think they ignore the frozen food.

 

[fluttermoth]

Very, very finely ground up flake will probably work; the baby brine shrimp might be too big, I'm not sure.

Remember that each fry is going to be eating only a tiny amount of food; you'll very likely not see them eating. The trick is to keep the tank as ful of food as you can but also do lots of water changes to stop it going bad. Some green water and weed out of a pond would be a good idea if you can get some, as it's full of micro-organisms for your fry to eat.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

When my old Pearl Danio's spawned i raised them on Liquifry (which is ideal for super-tiny fry which are too small for ground fish flakes etc), i started feeding them on the second day after hatching .