Fry Survived Against All Odds... Questions, Now!

[Fuego]

Hello, everyone. We have a platy fry that survived against all odds in our community tank. Not exactly sure when he was born, although we did see a few dot-sized fry (eaten quickly by our hyperactive Neon Dwarf Rainbows) a couple of months ago. We've been keeping an eye on this fry, a little Sunburst Platy, who was about a quarter inch long when we first spotted him hiding amongst the leaves a few weeks ago.

We quickly added a couple of plastic plants, that we hadn't been using up until that point, near where he was hiding to give him a better chance. Apparently it worked.

The fry, whom we named Philip J. Fry, is now around half an inch long... too big to be swallowed by any of the other fish (we're pretty sure). Increasingly, the other fish in the tank seem to be aware of him and "accepting" him. He is starting to venture out from his safe spots and exploring the rest of the tank. I've spotted him kinda-sorta swimming with our school of ten Glowlight Tetras (who are all around an inch long).

He is still very small, but the odds of him making it seem to be increasing every day. And we'd really like to do whatever we can to make sure that he "makes it". A few questions:

1) Feeding. We are feeding our fish a mix of O.S.I. vivid color aquarium flake food (maybe one or two pinches a day), plus green Spirulina aquarium flake food (maybe one small pinch every other day) which the LFS said was good for the Platys, the occasional shake of Tetra bloodworms freeze dried food, and a TetraMin tropical tablet maybe once every other day for our Bushy Nose Pleco (but, of course, the other fish... mainly the platys... poke at it too).

Is this mix of food good for the platy fry??? We've definitely seen him eating both kinds of flakes, mainly the regular flakes, and we've seen him pooping once or twice. He is growing. So he's definitely eating! But does a "growing" baby platy fish need more???

2) I'm concerned about our filter. The fry used to hide pretty much exclusively on the other side of the tank, far, far from the intake of the filter. But now that he's starting to explore, he may venture closer to it. He's small enough that he could get sucked in to it. Is there some way to protect him from getting sucked in, or is it not a concern???

3) How long before he's big enough that he's really, truly 100% not in danger? He's about 1/2 an inch long, nose to tip of tail, but the other fish in the tank are all 1 to 1 1/2 inches long and MUCH bigger in total mass. I'm still concerned that our hyper Neon Dwarf Rainbows might ram into him or peck at his fins or something. Seems to me like just because the fry is big enough not to be swallowed doesn't mean he isn't out of danger. Am I correct??? How much longer before he's closing in on his mother's size???

4) Is there anything else that we can do to keep him happy, healthy, safe and growing???

Originally when we spotted him, we were just amazed that he had survived. We weren't that concerned with him "making it" because we didn't think he had a chance. We didn't make any effort to quarantine him from the other fish. But as he's grown and gotten bigger, we've been amazed by his resiliancy (sp?) and now we've named him... so I guess we're emotionally attached now! LOL. Any advice or suggestions anyone can make would be helpful.

Thanks!

 

[Scales9]

Given that he seems to be growing well I would say he has been eating just fine, you could try just crushing the flakes a little smaller to make it easier for him to eat. The filter is a dangerouse place for fry and the best thing I have found is to simply put a stocking over the intake water will still get filtered but nothing can be suck in. As for the other fish in the tank even if they do not see him as food they may or may not decide to pick on him, unfortunately there is no way of telling if this will happen. Do not know how long it will take him to grow I have Molly fry that were born march 15 th and they are about half an inch now.

Sorry forgot to add, Fry also need frequent water changes, this helps them grow

 

[Ny82]

Hi congrats on the fry! I will try and answer your questions as best as I can!

1. When my fry are born I feed them tetra min finely crushed flake then I just feed my fry crushed flake when they are bigger. So that will be fine. I feed them 4-5 times a day when they are in the trap (I do daily water changes) then twice a day in the main tank.

2. I cut a pair of tights and put this over the filter to stop the fry being sucked in.

3. I always thought that as long as he is too big to fit in other fishes mouths-he should be fine. I have 2 mollies who have big mouths lol and I have a female guppy and an endler and I let the bigger of my 3 week old guppy fry into the main tank - they are almost a cm in length and they are fine so far

4. He should be fine and happy if he's eating well and swimming around I prefer real plants, my fish love the plants and swim around them and graze on them looking for fallen food.

 

[Fuego]

To answer a couple questions/comments:

We've been crushing up the flakes a bit more than usual, and making sure to drop the flakes in places where the "current" will carry them over to where the fry has been hiding. I used to feed our fish once a day, twice occasionally. We've been putting in a slightly smaller amount of flakes in the water each time, lately, but feeding them 2-3 times per day... to make sure the fry is getting enough.

I also do not like plastic plants. We bought 2-3 of them when we first set up the tank, but have been transitioning to live plants. We have 5-6 live plants, now, and only put in a couple of the "old" plastic plants to give the fry more hiding places!

We'll see if we can find some kind of tights or stocking or something permeable over the intake. The expert at the LFS said that we probably shouldn't be too concerned, that if he's not weak he should be strong enough to swim away from the "current" drawing water in to the intake... but I'm still a bit nervous about it.

 

[OldMan47]

1) Feeding. We are feeding our fish a mix of O.S.I. vivid color aquarium flake food (maybe one or two pinches a day), plus green Spirulina aquarium flake food (maybe one small pinch every other day) which the LFS said was good for the Platys, the occasional shake of Tetra bloodworms freeze dried food, and a TetraMin tropical tablet maybe once every other day for our Bushy Nose Pleco (but, of course, the other fish... mainly the platys... poke at it too).

Is this mix of food good for the platy fry??? We've definitely seen him eating both kinds of flakes, mainly the regular flakes, and we've seen him pooping once or twice. He is growing. So he's definitely eating! But does a "growing" baby platy fish need more???

That mix is no problem at all. It should thrive on a mix like that.


2) I'm concerned about our filter. The fry used to hide pretty much exclusively on the other side of the tank, far, far from the intake of the filter. But now that he's starting to explore, he may venture closer to it. He's small enough that he could get sucked in to it. Is there some way to protect him from getting sucked in, or is it not a concern???

I use a sponge designed to be used in a filter. I just cut a slit in one end of the sponge and slip it over the intake tube. The result looks like this after about a month. A bonus is that it becomes another biological filter along with the stuff inside the filter itself.

3) How long before he's big enough that he's really, truly 100% not in danger? He's about 1/2 an inch long, nose to tip of tail, but the other fish in the tank are all 1 to 1 1/2 inches long and MUCH bigger in total mass. I'm still concerned that our hyper Neon Dwarf Rainbows might ram into him or peck at his fins or something. Seems to me like just because the fry is big enough not to be swallowed doesn't mean he isn't out of danger. Am I correct??? How much longer before he's closing in on his mother's size???

He will probably take about 3 more months to be the size of the sub-adult fish sold in most shops.

4) Is there anything else that we can do to keep him happy, healthy, safe and growing???

Lots of water changes are always a benefit to keeping fry growing well.

 

[Fuego]

Just a quick update, in case anyone cares!

The fry -- Philip J. Fry -- is doing really well. He's noticeably bigger than he was even when I started this thread. As far as we can tell, he's been completely accepted by the other fish in our community tank. One really cute thing is that we've begun spotting him swimming and schooling with our ten Glowlight Tetras... basically the smallest fish in our tank. Philip doesn't really seem very afraid of the other fish at all, now. He seems to be thriving.

We haven't really made many changes, other than I've done a couple of water changes in the last week. (That's more than I'd been doing, maybe one water change every week or two.) I'm continuing to break up our food flakes smaller than we used to, but I'm back to feeding the fish only once or twice a day.

Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

[Scales9]

Glad to hear is still doing fine....

 

[NeonNeptune]

I think the filter would be fine unless it is excessively strong. My filter is a little bit stronger than is necessary for my tank and my guppy fry eat algae off it.