Fry! :)

[Kerri Gronow]

So my sister decided she wanted a tropical fish tank for christmas, as she liked mine, but after a few months, she unfortunatly got bored so i adopted her fish in my tank and she decided cold water would be ideal about a month ago ... again she decided she didnt want them so we gave them to the pet store and i decided to have her tank as i already extremely love them and decided i would be happy with another tank!!

But as i was cleaning it i found an orange fry about 1cm i was amazed, as i had been wanting my fish to breed but they never did... so where did it come from?? It couldnt of been the cold water fish but it must of been her swordtail (now in my tank)how it survived in cold water i will never know!! lol

After plenty of research, i gathered it was roughly a month old... so using my sisters tank I decided I could grow it up in there (120L) then realising the swordtail could give birth to more at any time soon ... i put it with the fry in the tank... two hours later and i found an estimate of 30 fry which i scooped into the breeding trap (didnt want them getting sucked up by the filter)

so after waiting for fry ... i finally get the chance to rear them so im just posting to ask a few questions ... i got powdered fry food, is that enough variety for them to grow? when will they be big enough to let them in the 120L tank (no other fish in it)? and how much and when should i do water changes??

Thank you in advance!!

 

[amy1994]

Congrats
You can you use powdered flakes/crisps/dried food 3 times a day, mine have always been fine with this
Obviously using powdered food means more mess, so it does need to be cleaned more often.
People have their own opinions about how much water to change and when, personally i take out a 1/4 of the water, or enough to make sure that there is nothing on the bottom of the tank.
My fry have always been fine with this, and they are all grown now
I wouldn't put them in just yet or until they are a bit bigger, a big tank like that will be scary for them, i would wait until they are atleast 1cm, maybe even wait a bit longer, but as there is nothing else in the tank, nothing will harm them. You have to watch the current though, as it can be too strong for them.

 

[Kerri Gronow]

Thank you for the reply

So the water changes are just the same as my community tank then (1/4)

Do you do the water changes once a week for them or more than that??

And yes i will let them grow and probably release them when the next load come along when they will probably be around 1cm! lol

Thanks again

 

[amy1994]

I normally do yes, unless the tank needs a good clean
I've got some in a 60l at the moment, most of them i should be putting back in to the community tank as they're big enough, think i'm just overprotective

 

[OldMan47]

A nice 30 gallon tank is a great home for your fry. I have about that many X. alvarezi swordtail fry in a 20 gallon right now. As long as you cover the filter inlet tube so the fry won't be sucked up, that tank would make a fine grow out tank. If I have fry in a tank with a powerful filter, I cover the inlet with some filter sponge to protect the fry. A simple slit can be cut in the end of a sponge and it can be slipped over the tube this way.

The fish visible in the tank is Heterandria formosa, which is smaller than a typical month old swordtail.

 

[Kerri Gronow]

Thank you for the reply OldMan

So if I cover the filter, the fry can be released straight away?

 

[Kerri Gronow]

Just an update ... the fry are all growing fast and developing lots of markings off daddy lol

There is one fry actually in he tank at the moment which i missed and seems a wee bit bigger than the rest... so should I release them yet so they will grow better??

 

[millie1997]

Try and get a picture of the fry so we can see them better once I had realised my fry into the rest of the tank they grew a lot to how the were before.

 

[Kerri Gronow]

I will upload a picture ASAP but as you may know they are speedy little things lol i'll try and get a decent pic!

 

[OldMan47]

If your fry are thriving, why change things? My X. alvarezi fry are much bigger than when I first got them but that is fine with me. As long as nothing is wrong, what I am already doing is just fine. When they start to slow down due to crowding in my grow out tank is soon enough for me to move them to larger accommodations.

 

[Kerri Gronow]

When they start to slow down due to crowding in my grow out tank is soon enough for me to move them to larger accommodations.

Yesterday I decided was the day to release them as there space in the trap was decreasing! But everything is fine I put some smaller fish out of my community tank in there which I observed closely to see if they attempted to munch the fry but they didnt which is great! (I put my two rummy nose tetras, two neons and my guppy!)

They are sooooo funny to watch as they dart about with the tetras. Some like to stay in the ornaments and plants but the most are really active and swim around in the open space!!

Anyway, releasing them was a big success so hopefully they will thrive even more!!