Do You Have To Feed Fry?

[LolaLouie]

My cockatoo has 2 week old fry, they are hiding in java moss at the moment so i have no idea how many there are, i have seen around five at any one time but there could be many more.

My angelfish eggs have just started hatching today. The thing is noth sets of parents are doing such a good job i don't feel i want to interfere. If i just leave them to get on with it will the fry get anything to eat? I feed the main tank all sorts of frozen and live food, wafers for the plecs and occasionally dried food. You always see baby guppies survive without any intervention so cant egg layers fry eat whatever guppy fry manage to eat in a community tank?

Thanks

 

[rocknurworld2006]

the fry are much smaller compared to guppy fry, they do need to be fed something like brine shrimp or they will die!!!

if the fry are with other fish theyll get picked off by them!

 

[Tolak]

Livebearer fry are much larger, and feed differently from cichlid fry. Cichlids often need the movement of live micro food to trigger the feeding instinct. Freshly hatched bbs is the way to go.

 

[LolaLouie]

Thanks for the advice, i am going to my lfs today so will see what i can get. Also i was just wondering since the parents are doing such a good job at guarding their fry should i move them to a breeding net?

Also since the cockatoos are 2 weeks old and i haven't had a chance to go to my LFS i have been feeding them powdered flake and adult bine shrimp and they have been eating it.

 

[Biulu]

The reason why they are in your java moss is because they are a great source for infusoria, which makes great food for small fry. However, only a limited number of fry can survive on this, so yes, you need to feed extra.

As said, BBS is great, and you can hatch them yourselves easily from eggs. Within 24 hours you can feed your first batch to your fry. And as the BBS is so small, other fish don't bother to eat it. I cultivate the BBS in a plastic bottle with an airstone. Check here on the forum for good tips on feeding live foods. In the subforum killifish is a pinned article about it for instance.

I would be careful moving your fry with the parents. I moved my kribensis fry into another tank, and the mother immediately started to eat them, as she didn't recognise them as her own anymore after the (brief) separation!