First Fry

[jmkgreen]

Hi guys - caught a cold yesterday and thus in bed most of today. Typical then that my sister rushes up to tell me I have fry for the first time lol.

One baby Molly appears to have been joined by a sibling recently. Damned good at hiding I must say.

Anyway, quickly looked up that finely crushed flake food can be fed to them. So I did, and it just floats at the top of the tank with the babies guarding themselves in the gravel. I've just summoned for Liquifry 2&3 - am I going to have the same problem with these products too?

 

[Annastasia]

You are just leaving them in the main tank? If so, they may be too scared to go get the food. Fry aren't dumb...they know how to survive. Liquifry, in my experience, has always been hard to feed. It's virtually impossible to know if the fry are eating any.

Do you have any live plants in your tank? If so, the fry can survive off those, eating the planaria and all the other yummy buggies. If you really want to make sure they are eating, and survive, it's probably best to seperate them to a breeder net or small fry tank.

Congratulations on the new arrivals though!

 

[jmkgreen]

Thanks for the reply - to answer your points:

- The fry remain in the main tank as I have no space for a separate facility;
- The tank has live plants and the fry are eating from them as do the other fish;
- The liquifry I agree appears to be a little hit and miss. Have seen one of the resulting "white bits" being eaten by a baby, so I can only hope this is happening widely.

I was wondering if the crushed flake could be scooped up in a syringe and "pumped" more directly to the fry? Not sure I even have a solution for it.

Since their are livebearers in the tank, I figure a breeder net/box would actually lead to a population explosion as the parents would give birth monthly, far faster than I could raise and sell/give away the resulting fry. Survival of the fittest seems the best way...

 

[Annastasia]

Well, if you are doing survival of the fittest, I guess the ones that find food survive. If they are eating off the live plants, I wouldn't worry too much. I've raised fry entirely on that, and they have always come out very healthy. You could try the thing with the flakes, if you want...but I'm not sure how well it would work, and they might already be full from eating off the live plants.

 

[fennijm]

What I have done is to crush up the flake food as small as possible. Get some of your tank water into a small cup. Drop the crushed flakes into the cup and stir around. This will cause it to sink. After that poor into the tank near the babies. This will provide plenty of food for them. I would do this only a couple of times a week at the most. Feed sparingly.

 

[jmkgreen]

They're on Liquifry #2 atm - I've seen them bite at the left-overs of flake food fed to the adults so that's encouraging. They continue to eat from the plants too.

I saw four fry earlier today. Considering the corys and danios chasing them around it's a minor miracle they haven't become food yet themselves...

 

[paulthegreat]

Congrats on the fry I hope you get a few to male it and dumping a small amount of fine crushed flakes should do the trick. Just keep a close watch on the water stats and do a little extra gravel vacs and water changes.